


Dust Trader

by brokenmimir



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, White Rose - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:18:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 96,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19448794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenmimir/pseuds/brokenmimir
Summary: Weiss Schnee was born to wealth and privilege on the core world of Atlas.  Ruby Rose was born on the poor frontier colony of Patch with few prospects but many dreams.A chance meeting when Weiss's ship breaks down on the way to Vale changes their lives forever.





	1. Falling Stars

The hover bike was stubby, with a barrel-like body long enough for two people to sit comfortably, and a large plasma-jet engine projecting out from each side near its back. The front had a traditional handlebar control system for the pilot, with the tip tapering to a metal grill, which covered the large air intake for the thrust assembly. The entire bike was painted black and yellow, with a faux-gold trim and orange highlights that resembled flames here and there.

The bike was resting on a cheap wooden cradle that allowed it to sit on its side without scratching the paint or denting the frame, exposing the Dust based lift-field system. It was partially disassembled, with only a couple of small flashlights positioned to illuminate the delicate machinery that allowed the vehicle to defy the bonds of gravity..

Sitting in front of it, a screwdriver in her mouth to free up a hand to hold the delicate lift system in place while she worked a spanner to tighten it down after fixing it, was a short, thin young woman with unevenly cut black and red hair. Her bright silver eyes focused intently on her work, her cute face a mask of concentration as she carefully finished the maintenance.

She was so focused on her repair work that she didn't even notice someone coming up behind her until they called her name, making her yelp and spit out the screwdriver. “Ruby.”

She half turned, shock shifting into annoyance as she recognized who had interrupted her. Despite being half sisters they looked little alike, with the other woman being tall and muscular despite her impressively womanly figure. She had a mass of golden locks on her head, the mess well cared for despite being so wild, and violet eyes that all but glowed in the dim light. She was dressed for a day in town, with a brown leather jacket and shorts which showed off her long, shapely legs and impressive cleavage.

As always Ruby's eyes drifted for just a moment to her sister's right arm, which was made of armored metal painted black and yellow like her hover bike. Guilt churned in her stomach for a moment, before she forcefully ripped her gaze away to look her sister in the eye. “ _Yang_ … you scared me.”

Yang chuckled, before walking the rest of the way over and plopping down beside Ruby, throwing her flesh and blood arm over her shoulders. “Ah, come on sis, you really need to keep an eye on your surroundings. What if I was a Grimm coming to eat you.”

Ruby huffed and returned her attention to the hover bike, turning the spanner again, grunting slightly with the amount of force she was exerting. “You know there's no such thing as Grimm.”

“I dunno, that story Uncle Qrow used to tell us when he got drunk was pretty spooky.”

Ruby rolled her eyes and huffed. “He also used to warn me not to date white haired ice queens, whatever _that's_ supposed to mean.”

“Fine, fine, but you should at least look up every once in a while,” Yang said. “The sky is falling and you haven't even noticed.”

Ruby took in the stars overhead. Patch had an extremely long day-night cycle, with over forty hours needed to fully rotate from dawn to dawn again, and so its inhabitants had long ago decided to follow Galactic Standard Time rather than trying to adjust to the impossibly long days. That meant that, despite being a perfectly reasonable time to be up by the clock the sun had only recently set, meaning that the sky was a tapestry of stars.

A meteor shower was burning through the atmosphere, bringing a small smile to Ruby's face. Ever since she was little she'd dreamed of traveling the stars just like her parents had done, and even the death of her mother hadn't killed that dream, although growing up had made her realize just how hard it would be to actually live it. Having recently turned eighteen Ruby had begun to doubt that she'd ever get to see the universe, especially since she couldn't bear the thought of leaving her sister behind to do it.

One of the falling stars moved strangely, and after a moment her smile widened into a huge grin. “That one's not a meteor! That's a ship!”

“Huh, you're right,” Yang said. “That's kinda weird. That's three ships in the last couple days. We don't usually see that many in a month.”

“I wonder if they'll need any repairs done,” Ruby said. She loved starships and repairing things, and _repairing starships_ was so much fun she would pay to do it if she had the money. Even better, crews were often willing to pay locals to help with maintenance or repairs while they were in port, and she'd become pretty well known around Patch's only spaceport as the best mechanic and engineer the tiny backwater colony had. Unfortunately, the last two ships hadn't needed anything, with the last one being really rude about saying no. Hopefully the latest would be different, not that she was hoping they were having engine problems! She just wanted to work on the ship.

Yang chuckled. “I was gonna head into port and see if there were any bounties. Wanna come with?”

“Sure!” Ruby said. “Just let me finish fixing this up.”

“And go change,” Yang pointed out.

Ruby glanced down at her oil stained pajamas and made a face. They were some of her favorites, with cute little rosebuds decorating them, but she'd managed to get them dirty enough to require some serious cleaning before she could wear them again, even if she was willing to go to town wearing her night clothes.

“I should probably grab a shower, too,” Ruby said. “Just let me finish this up, first.”

“Anything wrong with Bumblebee?” Yang asked as Ruby grabbed the screwdriver to tighten down some connectors.

“You need to be more careful,” Ruby grumbled. “You pushed the hover system too hard in that chase, and the Dust crystals are getting burned out, and you know we can't afford to buy more. Dust is just crazy expensive out here.”

“It'll work out,” Yang said casually, making Ruby roll her eyes as she closed up the maintenance hatch and started to put away her tools. “Now go get cleaned up. You might be a Rose, but you don't exactly smell like one right now, sis.”

Ruby stuck her tongue out at her sister but ran off anyway, eager to see what starship had decided to visit their remote home.


	2. Stranded

“The longer we spend on here the more shocked I am that this hunk of junk even made it this far,” the engineer said. He was heavily overweight, his greasy coveralls stretched to near bursting to contain his bulk. “This thing should be in a scrapyard, not trying to fly.”

He and his fellow crew, all four of them wearing the standard Schnee Dust Company white jumpsuits, although the rest at least wore it better than the engineer, were facing down a young woman wearing an expensive white dress with a white bolero with red lining covering her back and arms. She had a beautiful face marred only by a scar covering one eye, and had long white hair in an off center ponytail.

She was short and very petite, with the four crewmen towering over her even with the tall heels of her boots. Despite that she had her arms crossed and nose in the air imperiously as glared at the men like they were beneath her, with only a thin, edgeless sword tucked into the cloth sash on her hips to defend herself if anything went wrong.

“You claimed to be a trained engineer, did you not?”

“I am,” he said, obviously offended.

“Then your job is to keep this ship flying,” she said. “Or is that too much for you?”

“It's too much for anyone,” the engineer said. “Even besides half the ship falling apart, that last jump took out the force field modulator. Do you know what that is?”

“I know exactly what that is,” she huffed. “If it failed then fix it.”

The four men laughed darkly. “Fix it? _Fix it_? Obviously you don't know what it does or you wouldn't care this little. The force field modulator is what controls the Dust forcefields… you know, the thing that lets us jump through wormholes? Without it working we're stuck in this star system with no way to go _anywhere_.”

“I know exactly how important it is,” she said, scowling fiercely. “I am Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company! The company that has paid your wages for how many years?”

“Are they?” the pilot asked. He had a long rattail-like ponytail on the back of his head, which went well with his squinty, bloodshot eyes. “Because I've worked for real SDC ships my whole career, and I've never seen one this shit.”

Weiss' back stiffened. “Did you or did you not receive your advanced payment for this job?”

The four looked at each other. “We did,” the pilot said when Weiss started tapping her foot impatiently.

“Then why are we having this conversation?” Weiss demanded. “You've been paid, and you'll continue receiving your paychecks. We've set down on whatever backwater colony this is so you can find the parts needed to repair the ship and we can continue our mission. We've got a full load of cargo to take to Vale, and you'll receive the rest of your salary upon arrival.”

The four exchanged looks with each other for a moment, before one of them whose job she couldn't quite recall stepped forward, one hand on the large wrench hanging from his hip. “What's my name?”

“What?” Weiss asked.

“I said, what's my name?” he repeated. “You're the captain of this ship, and you're the one who picked the four of us out. So what's my name?”

There was a long pause as Weiss tried to remember it. She had in fact picked the four, selecting them based upon a combination of positive reports and a lack of scheduled work. They were simply hired help, and she had had no interest in getting to know any of them. She wasn't actually certain that she'd even read their names on the personnel files.

The four's expressions darkened at her lack of an answer. Eventually the pilot stepped forward, a dark scowl on his face. “This isn't a real SDC mission, is it? I don't know what bullshit family politics we wandered into, and I don't want to know. But the only way I'm flying this deathtrap any further is if I get a bonus. Right now.”

Weiss scowled back. “You already agreed to do this mission.”

“I agreed to fly an SDC ship to Vale,” he countered. “Not to fly some ancient piece of shit so some spoiled princess can play captain. Now either pay up or you can fly yourself.”

“Not likely,” the engineer chuckled nastily. “I wasn't joking about the state of the forcefield modulator. This thing is stuck here on Patch unless I fix it, since you sure as hell aren't gonna find someone who could on this planet.”

“You signed a contract,” Weiss said.

“Yeah, with the SDC,” he countered.

“You aren't getting a single lien from me until we reach Vale,” Weiss blustered.

The four exchanged looks again, until the man who'd stepped forward pulled the wrench from his belt. “If you aren't gonna pay us then we'll be taking our own paycheck. I think a crate of that Dust apiece from the cargo hold sounds about right.”

Weiss' jaw dropped in shock. “That's worth more than you're paid in a year!”

“A lot more,” the engineer sneered. “Maybe if you don't cause a fuss we won't tell the local gangs there's a spoiled brat stranded with a fortune here and you'll be able to keep the rest until daddy shows up to take you home.”

The mention of her father sent a chill down her spine, her hand dropping to her sword's hilt involuntarily. Once she felt the well worn grip she felt her confidence return, and when the man with the wrench started to step forward again she drew the weapon, pointing it at him menacingly.

It didn't look like much. The hilt had a large cylindrical section with four guards pointing pack towards her body, and the blade was simply a long, round metal rod. A quick motion with her index finger activated it, however, and the weapon emitted a low, ominous hum as a nearly invisible distortion surrounded the blade.

“You seemed to now a lot about Dust,” Weiss said calmly, assuming a proper fencing stance, adjusting her feet to exactly match her teacher's instructions. “I assume you know what a Dust Blade is?”

The four men hesitated, their thuggish inclination to physically bully the petite girl balanced against the dangerous weapon in her hands. Her eyes scanned their belts again, narrowing slightly as she saw that they all wore standard AURA systems. They were nothing compared to what she was wearing, but it still meant that she couldn't guarantee hurting them with a single slash, which could give them all the space they needed to overwhelm her.

The man with the wrench seemed to come to the same conclusion, moving towards her with the wrench held in front of his body like a club. Weiss narrowed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then lunged, slashing with her Dust Blade when her body was at full extension. It was a move that let her put little power behind the swing, but she didn't need any.

AURA, Automatic Universal Reactive Armor, used Dust to generate a forcefield that clung to the user's skin. It wasn't nearly as strong as a naturally shaped forcefield defense, but it was good enough to protect its user from at least a couple of hits. It did not, however, extend its protection to something held in its wearer's hand. Something like the wrench he was menacing her with.

Dust wasn't only valuable as a defensive tool. Weiss' Dust Blade was a far more recent, and much more expensive, innovation. The device used Dust to project a set of angled forcefields so rigid and at such precise angles that the forcefields functioned like a blade sharper than anything that could be made with solid material. The end result was Weiss easily sheering through the metal wrench with the tip of her blade, and it fell to the ground with a clatter as she returned to her fencing stance.

Weiss smirked as she flourished the weapon, before pointing the tip at them once again. “Are you sure you want to try me?”

“Our AURAs will protect us if we rush her,” the engineer said nervously. “Forcefields can keep out forcefields.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow, carefully keeping her own nervousness from showing on her face. “Oh? If you want to press your luck you should know, when your AURA does drop my sword will cut through your body like it isn't even there. Sure, those cheap AURAs might keep me from killing you on the first hit. Maybe with four of you you'll be able to overpower and unarm me before you die. But do you really want to be one of the people cut in half?”

They hesitated for just a moment longer before the pilot spat on the ground. “You know what? This isn't worth it. She'll come crawling to us in a week when she can't get this ship off the ground, and she'll need to pay us a _lot_ more than one crate when she does.”

The other three chuckled and followed the pilot as he left. Weiss watched them walk down the main corridor of the ship, stopping in each of their rooms to grab their luggage before finally going to the airlock and walking outside to the landing pad beyond. The entire time Weiss stood perfect still, sword in hand, and only when she was alone did she turn off the blade and sink down to the floor, feet askew as she rested her head in one shaking hand.

She had tried to sound confident, but in truth she was anything but. She'd been the target of multiple assassination attempts in the past, but her bodyguards had always dealt with them, usually before she'd even realized that there was a problem. Other than in the safety of the training room, the only violence she'd ever been subjected to-

Weiss shook that line of thought away, forcefully pulling her hand away from the fresh scar over her eye. She refused to think about that. She wasn't weak. She didn't need her father or his money. She didn't need her lazy, backstabbing crew. She didn't need anyone.

After checking to make sure that the airlock was sealed, she made her way back to engineering. The ship was built with one long, central corridor connecting the bridge to the mess hall, with the main air lock, medical bay, crew quarters and passenger cabins all along its length. The back of the mess hall had a heavy bulkhead with an iris valve for a door, and beyond it was the cargo hold.

The cargo hold was a single, wide open room which took up most of the ship, with a raised catwalk running through the center of it like an extension of the main ship's corridor. Weiss paused for a moment in the middle of the catwalk to admire the large number of crates filling the room. It was a small fortune in Dust, more than enough to upgrade the ancient starship and refill its cargo bay with normal goods many times over… if she could get it to Vale.

At the far end of the catwalk was another iris valve, and on the other side was engineering. She hesitated when she saw it, as if the rest of the ship was a bit shabby and run down, the engine room was far, far worse. The parts that weren't smeared with grease or dripping with oil were rusted or otherwise corroded, and many devices that probably should've hummed along quietly instead made various tortured noises. The ship technically still worked, but spending almost half a century mothballed had done nothing good for it.

Weiss spent two hours carefully poking and prodding different systems, frequently scrunching her face up in distaste as she touched _something_ messy. Even with the help of her Scroll she was barely able to find the force field modulator, and she could do absolutely nothing to diagnose what was wrong with it. She did know that the engineer hadn't been lying about the impossibility of leaving the system without it working, however.

Dejected, Weiss returned to her cabin to wash up, before going to the bridge, where she collapsed into the captain's seat. Closing her eyes, she imagined what it must've been like for her grandfather to sit in that exact seat so long ago, transporting the first load of cargo that would one day transform the Schnee Dust Company into the most powerful mega corporation in all of known space.

She was officially stuck. Her grandfather's trading ship, _Myrtenaster_ , had been sitting in an old storage bay in the SDC for decades until she'd transferred it to her name and loaded it up with cargo. She had known that the trip to Vale would be dangerous, but she'd assumed that the risk was pirates, or her father sending the Navy after her, or even some fanciful danger, like Grimm actually existing out on the frontier like the holo dramas claimed. Not mechanical problems and an unreliable crew.

The bridge had four other chairs, worn, patched, and empty, and the various monitors were still active if unattended. The biggest feature of the room was the large, curved transparent canopy that went from the deck at the front of the room, curving up to form the ceiling and offer an amazing view. Looking up she could see the stars above, only dimmed by the collection of spotlights around all of the landing pads of the spaceport. She didn't recognize any of the constellations, or the large gas giant and its rings taking up a swath of the night's sky, but it was beautiful.

It was still early in the morning GST, although Weiss had no idea how that translated to local time. She could check her Scroll or the ship's computer to find out, but she felt so listless that she decided to just keep staring up at the stars until people were likely to be up and about on the tiny colony. Could she find someone capable of fixing her ship? Was there really anyone on the backwater her ship had landed on that was capable? She didn't even know the name of the colony, and when the pilot had said it she hadn't recognized it at all.

If she couldn't find anyone what could she do? She had no doubt that given time and alcohol her useless former crew would either get enough courage to try to rob her, or let slip what she had in her cargo bay to some of the less reputable townsfolk. Even worse, they might contact the SDC, leading to he father sending someone after her.

Weiss slowly sat up and stared at the communications console. She could walk over to it, enter the correct information, and send a courier drone to the regional Naval HQ to pass on word to her sister. Winter Schnee was the captain of her own cruiser, and even if it would get her in trouble Weiss knew that she would come and help her.

Was her entire attempt at independence going to end that ignominiously? After appropriating a ship and cargo hold full of valuable Dust before her father could make her disownment official, after getting a crew and flying a ship halfway across the known galaxy, after everything she'd done to remake herself as her own person, was she going to fail and be dependent on family to take care of her again? Was she really as worthless as her father always said?

Weiss wiped tears away for a moment, hating herself for being so weak. She'd failed, just like every other venture she'd ever tried. This was just the latest in series of pathetic rebellions against her father, although this one was actually serious. Maybe she'd dotted enough I's and crossed enough T's to keep her actions technically legal, but she could still end up facing serious consequences if she ever went back home, assuming she even had a home on Atlas anymore.

Her wallowing was interrupted when she saw movement on one of the ship's monitors. She furrowed her brow and squinted at the small, archaic screen, eventually huffing and forcing herself out of the captain's seat to get a closer look. It might've been nothing, but in that moment _Myrtenaster_ was all she had, and she wasn't going to let scavengers steal copper cable for narcotics, or whatever else people on a small colony might do for fun.

She wasn't expecting to see a young woman dressed in a black dress and boots with a red cloak over her shoulders. She couldn't see many details, and even after fumbling around with the controls for a few long minutes she only managed to zoom the ancient external camera enough to see that the girl had a large pack hanging low on her back as she slowly walked the length of _Myrtenaster_ _._

Weiss watched her for a while, grateful for the distraction from her plight. The young woman had a look of childlike wonder on face as she examined every inch of the ship. It was actually… kind of cute, and for a moment Weiss floated the thought of giving the local girl a private tour of the ship. She probably didn't know anything about them, and while Weiss knew more about the profit margins of interstellar arbitrage than how plasma thrusters worked, that didn't mean she couldn't bluff her way through. It might be a fun distraction, and if the girl enjoyed the tour enough maybe they could end it in her quarters…

Then Weiss saw the girl reach out and touch the ship, and her eyes widened in horror when she saw that she was _opening a maintenance panel_. All prurient thoughts vanished as she suddenly realized that her original fear, that the stranger was trying to strip the ship for valuable parts was _true_.

Weiss snarled and ran from the bridge, slapping the open button on the airlock hard enough to hurt her hand before hurrying inside and waiting impatiently for it to cycle. Once it did she barely even noticed the strange scent of a foreign planet, or even the sudden weight of high gravity, as she was too focused on storming down the ramp and stomping towards the thief.

When she found her the girl actually had her upper body inside of the maintenance panel, and it took everything Weiss had not to simply draw her sword and show her what happened to rabble who tried to rob from the rich on Atlas.

“You!”

She felt a burst of satisfaction as the stranger jumped, banging her head on something and yelping like a kicked puppy.


	3. Meeting New People

Ruby had never learned to pilot a hover bike, but when she rode behind Yang she could see the appeal. The wind in her face (where her visor was up and not battered by Yang's hair), the thrill of so much speed, the sharp motions as Yang navigated around some of the taller trees as they flew thirty feet above the ground. It was really too bad that the one time Yang had tried to give her lessons it had gone so badly.

Traveling at almost half the speed of sound, it only took a few minutes to reach the core of the colony. Also named Patch, it was the only city on the planet, although on other worlds it would likely barely be called a town. As always it was well lit by streetlights during the long planetary night, and as it was early morning GST the city was bustling with people going about their normal business.

Yang slowed down to just above the speed limit, lowering her altitude to a dozen feet above the streets as she joined the morning traffic. It took longer to make it through town than it had to reach it, despite being a fraction of the distance, and Ruby could feel Yang shifting impatiently as she forced herself to keep from simply flying above the traffic and racing to her destination, not wanting to risk losing her license by getting yet another ticket.

They both breathed a sigh of relief when they reach their destination. The Qrow Bar was situated near the spaceport, ready to attract the money of any non locals looking to get drunk, as well as most of the rougher sorts living in the colony. Their dad still complained about how often they went even though both women were now legal adults, but he had never stopped them, even when Ruby really was too young to visit the place.

From the amount of hover and ground bikes parked there was a surprising amount of business being done for such an early hour, although the presence of not just one, but _three_ star ships in a few days had no doubt drawn plenty of locals interested in interacting with the outsiders.

Yang smoothly landed in an open spot, climbing off and pulling her black and yellow helmet off of her head and shaking out her long hair with a sigh. Ruby struggled for a moment to get her's off, as it was perhaps a little too small for her, but she couldn't give up the black and red helmet she'd been wearing since Yang had turned sixteen and had finally gotten the bike she'd spent years pining over.

The outside of the bar didn't look like much, just a squat building made of cinderblocks with a sign saying 'Qrow Bar' with an actual crowbar chained just below it. The inside was perhaps even worse, with a smooth concrete floor only interrupted by cheap plastic tables and chairs, along with ubiquitous sticky patches, and walls that were the same cinderblock as outside, except with harder to identify stains.

There was a long bar on the far side of the room made by piling up cinderblocks and putting thin aluminum sheets over the top. Behind the bar was their uncle Qrow, who as always looked like he'd been the one drinking away the morning rather than dispensing the alcohol. His gray hair looked more mussed than usual, and his five o'clock shadow was verging into actual beard territory. He was busy pouring four beers for a man in a white jumpsuit with a snowflake logo to carry to a table, but he still took the time to nod to them as they came in.

“Hey Uncle Qrow!” Ruby called. “Did you miss us? Did you miss us?”

“Nope,” he grunted with a smirk as he handed over the last beer. “You know, you two are the only ones I have to break out the fruity crap for.”

“Ah, you know you'd miss it if we didn't keep you on your toes,” Yang said as she hopped up onto one of the rickety plastic stools in front of the bar.

Qrow rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes. If I didn't have to remember to include your little umbrella I'd have to go back to bounty hunting to get my thrills.”

“Thanks uncle Qrow!” Ruby said as she sat as well, taking a big sip of her virgin strawberry daiquiri. She loved cookies and any other sweet, but they were all secondary to strawberries. She just wished she could get more fresh ones, but they were too expensive to import, and the growing season locally was very short. She had to mostly get by on flavored syrups like the one her uncle used for her drink.

“So what brings you girls out here this early?”

Yang slurped her strawberry sunrise loudly before setting it down with a sigh. “Rubes wanted to see if the ship that just landed had any work for her, and I wanted to check out the bounty boards. You hear anything interesting today?”

“I hear lots of interesting stuff,” Qrow demurred. “The last couple days more than usual, though. This is the first time we've had so many visitors since the colony got founded.”

“Who's the newest ship?” Ruby asked, glancing at the table of four men wearing white uniforms. She was a little surprised to see them drinking so heavily this early in the morning, but they had just arrived in port.

“SDC from the uniforms,” Qrow said. “They just rolled in a little before you did, so can't really say much. They're on their second round of drinks already, though. They look like trouble for Atlas types… and not the fun kind of trouble, either.”

“The fun kind?” Yang asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning on the bar.

He smirked. “Yeah, that's a story for when you're older.”

“I'm older!” Ruby said. “I'm an adult and everything!”

“You're gonna have to be _a lot_ older before I even think about telling you this one,” Qrow said. “Or at least I'll need to wait until Tai is a lot slower. I don't need him running me out of town again for corrupting his sweet little daughters.”

“That sounds like a fun story,” Yang said.

He chuckled. “If you ever run into a scary Atlesian with a stick up her ass, run away. No matter how hot it was she's not worth the headaches.”

Ruby rolled her eyes, barely listening to him anymore. It's not that she didn't date. She'd actually gone on several dates with a few pretty girls in town, although between overprotective family members and her own weirdness none of them had lasted long. She'd never been very good with people anyway, preferring machines for company. They were much easier to understand, and more fun, too.

No, she'd leave the dating to her sister, who drew people to her with her confidence and sunny smile, even after losing her arm. Ruby felt another surge of guilt as she glanced at the mechanical limb, forcefully focusing in on the conversation again to try to forget about it.

Apparently she'd missed more than she'd expected, as Yang finished her drink and left to go check on the bounty board. Qrow had put it up when he'd first opened the bar, and it had slowly become the main way to spread the word to the rougher townsfolk about temporary work needing to be done, as well as a place for actual wanted posters to be put up.

“You're distracted today,” Qrow said while polishing a glass.

“Just… uh, just excited about the new ship,” Ruby fumbled.

“Right,” he drawled. They were silent for a long time as Ruby fidgeted under his probing look, until finally he set the glass down with a sigh. “You really should just talk to her.”

“Huh?”

“Don't play dumb with me, kid,” Qrow said, narrowing his eyes challengingly. “Yang doesn't blame you for what happened. No one blames you for what happened 'cept you.”

Ruby looked down and fiddled with her glass, taking another quick sip of the sugary concoction. “If I hadn't-”

“Ah bup bup,” he said. “All regrets get you is a heavy tab in places like this. Yang's the one who lost her arm, and the only thing she'd be upset about now is that she didn't notice it was still hurting you after all these years.”

He sighed when she focused on her drink, chugging the rest of it down. Sometimes she wondered about how it would be if she had alcohol in it, but she could still remember all the times her uncle got lost in a bottle before he decided to open the bar. It wasn't likely good for his liver, but at least he'd somehow stayed functional despite the constant access to his temptation. It was still enough to make her not want to touch the stuff, though.

“I'm gonna… check on that crew,” Ruby said as she slid off her stool. “Maybe they need some things fixed.”

“Be careful,” Qrow said. “They seem like a real bunch of, a- jerks.”

Ruby smirked. “You can say 'assholes', uncle Qrow. Dad's not here to get mad at you.”

“And you're way too young to be saying words like that,” Qrow said, waving his cleaning rag at her.

“I'm an adult,” Ruby said proudly. “Besides, I've heard way worse stuff working on ships.”

“All kids have said way worse stuff than adults like to believe,” he said. “Not cursing is for us, not them. Lets us keep our illusions of our sweet little angels.”

She rolled her eyes and headed over to the table. The four crew members were hunched over their drinks, whispering to each other with ugly expressions on their faces. Ruby hated approaching strangers, even friendly ones, and seeing them was setting off alarm bells way beyond her usual social anxiety. Still, she'd either have to go back to her uncle and listen to another of his attempted pep talks, or she'd have to suck it up and keep going.

“Hey,” she squeaked. She cleared her throat and tried to deepen her voice a little, hoping to sound more mature as the four men looked up at her. “Hello.”

“Yeah, we'll take another round, cutie,” one the men said. He had a long, super thin, gross looking ponytail on the back of his head, and his eyes didn't go any higher than her chest.

Ruby crossed her arms uncomfortably, way more used to Yang getting that kind of treatment. In addition to being a lot less impressively built than her older sister, most locals had learned just how overprotective Yang, her father, and her uncle all were. “What?”

“We're almost done with this one, sweet thing,” he said. “Why don't you get us another round and I'll give you a nice tip.”

“Uh… I'm not a waitress,” she said.

“What do you want then?” another man asked. He appeared to have been poured into his coveralls, and whoever was responsible for it just hadn't known when to stop.

“I'm a mechanic,” Ruby said proudly. “I was just wondering if you needed any work done on your ship?”

They burst out into ugly laugher, making Ruby wilt a little. “Really! I help out with repair work all the time. Er… when ships come in that need repairs. And not just ships, I repair lots of stuff around here!”

“If you want to spend some time with us we're more than willing,” the first man said. “We're out of chairs, but you can use my knee. We don't need any repairs though, hot stuff.”

“Hey!” Yang shouted, storming over to them.

“Damn, we land on the planet of the babes or somethin'?” one of the other men asked loudly.

“No, but if you ever talk to my little sister like that again you'll be needing the planet of the dentists,” Yang growled, raising her metal fist.

“Hey, let's all just calm down,” the only man who hadn't spoken yet said. He was a little older than the others, with more gray hair than brown. He was eying Yang more warily than the rest, obviously having noticed something dangerous about her. “We're just in a bad mood and were looking to take our mind off things. You came over to us, and maybe we got the wrong idea. You aren't interested you aren't interested. We aren't looking for trouble.”

The man with the long hair gave him an incredulous look. “Why are you being so scared?”

“That arm's mil-spec, and those bracelets are Dust Shields,” the man said. “I don't want to get into a mess with the locals, and I sure as hell don't want to get into fight with someone loaded for bear.”

Ruby shuffled uncomfortably, both upset at being dismissed and treated poorly by the men for her gender and age, as well as the sudden possibility of violence. She just wanted to leave and never think about what happened again, or at least not until the encounter replayed in her mind over and over again some night when she couldn't sleep but the perfect retorts finally came to her.

“Come on,” Ruby said quietly, tugging on the sleeve of Yang's human arm. “Let's just go.”

“You're lucky my little sister's nicer than I am,” Yang finally said, following Ruby across the room to the bounty board. “I should've just put those creeps in their place. They'll probably harass other women now.”

“Let's just forget about it,” Ruby said uncomfortably. “Besides, nobody around here is going to put up with- with rude people like them, okay?”

Yang sighed. “Fine. I'd better find some jerks to beat up soon, though, or I'm gonna go look for them again. You see anything good on the board?”

Ruby looked over the notices, many of which had been up for a while. While it resembled the classic paper covered boards she'd read about in period fiction, it was actually a computerized screen that Scrolls could add or remove messages from. After a moment of scrutiny she saw one that hadn't already been up the last time she looked. “Mrs. Kida's cat ran away again.”

“Ugh,” Yang groaned. “No way. Even with a metal arm I'm not grabbing that demon again. Besides, leave that sorta stuff to kids for some pocket money. I'm looking for some criminals to haul in, or maybe some bodyguard work.”

“Who needs a bodyguard on Patch?” Ruby asked.

Yang deflated. “Alright, maybe that was too hopeful. But come on, who wouldn't want to meet a runaway princess, in danger from the bad guys and needing a rescue?”

Ruby wrinkled her nose. “That sounds like a headache waiting to happen.”

Yang rolled her eyes, before sighing. “This sucks. You'd think there'd be something fun to do today.”

“You could come with me to check out the ship that just landed,” Ruby offered. “Maybe they have something you can do?”

The door to the bar opened, and in walked a woman wearing a gray trench coat over a black pair of skintight pants and a white shirt short enough to show her trim belly. She was very pretty, with intense amber eyes, and long dark hair with a black ribbon tied as a bow on top of her head. Ruby appreciated her appearance for a moment, before returning her attention to the board, only to realize that Yang was still distracted by the newcomer.

“Yang?” Ruby asked.

“I know what I want to do,” Yang murmured dreamily.

Ruby made a face. “Ugh, gross.”

“You'll find the right person someday,” Yang said. “Now I'm gonna go say 'hi'.”

Ruby hung back for a moment to watch her sister approach the stranger, who had taken a seat at the end of the bar. The room was pretty starkly lit by a couple of cheap LED lights, but she had gone to the closest thing to a dark corner the room had while still being able to get a drink. Between that and the way she hunched her shoulders and kept her head down even while ordering made her look either suspicious or melodramatic, or possibly both.

After a moment of hesitation Ruby decided to stick around. After all, if the stranger was dangerous she wanted to be there to help her sister out. If she was just annoying, then it was her little sisterly duty to save Yang from the mistake she was about to make. Besides, if the crew she'd met already were like those still at the new ship then she wasn't in a hurry to go meet them.

Ruby cautiously moved closer, sitting down a few stools away and ordering another drink while listening in to her big sister hit on the woman. From the sounds of things it wasn't exactly going well.

“Ah, come on, I'll buy you a drink,” Yang wheedled. “I've even told you my name right off.”

“That was your own choice,” the stranger said, her voice bored. “I never asked who you were… or for you to come up to me in the first place.”

“Ouch…” Yang mumbled. “Look, if I'm bothering you I'm sorry. I just saw a pretty stranger and thought I'd say 'hi', which I guess I have now.”

The woman hesitated for a moment, before shaking her head. “I'm not planning on staying on this colony. Do you know when I can get a ride off world?”

“Just my luck,” Yang sighed. “Just fell from heaven and wants to go back… but sorry, there isn't anything too regular. People either come to Patch to settle down or to do a bit of trading. If you want to ride a different ship you'll have to ask anyone that comes into port if they've got room for passengers.”

The woman nodded, taking a sip of the local beer she'd ordered and making a face at the taste. “Right.”

“Hey, we've had more ships the last couple of days than we usually do in a month, so maybe traffic is picking up,” Yang said optimistically. “You could be on a ship out of here before you know it.”

“Or none could come for months to fix your average,” she said.

“Wow, mood,” Yang said. “On the bright side we could get to know each other better if you're stranded here a while.”

The door opened again, and two men stepped inside. One was tall and muscular, with a set of floppy dog ears, while the other was short and thin, with a pair of cut off stumps of horns on top of his head. Ruby's eyes widened for a moment, as they were some of the first Faunus she'd ever seen in person. She knew they existed, but they didn't usually come to a place like Patch, and when they did they mostly stayed on their ships or at least did their business and left quickly.

The two looked dangerous, with matching gray vests and black pants. Both had weapons on their hips, a heavy looking nightstick for the man with the ears, and handgun for the smaller man with the horns. Guns weren't rare on the small colony, but something about the two made Ruby glad that she was wearing her AURA device. She was so distracted by them that she almost didn't notice the woman Yang had been talking to trying to duck down even lower, obviously not wanting to be seen by them.

She suddenly worried about what sort of person Yang had been hitting on.


	4. Troublesome Arrivals

Yang might have acted like a dumb blonde sometimes to get people to underestimate her, but she was anything but. She immediately realized the situation, and with an incredibly casual movement she leaned over and whispered something to the woman she'd been talking to, before stretching an arm around her shoulders. Ruby could see her glaring at Yang, but she went with it, burying her face in the blonde's shoulder, letting her hair help hide who she was. Yang made sure to flash Ruby a smug grin when no one else was looking, and that was without being able to see the blush on the brunette stranger's face as she was pressed close.

The two men reached the bar, stopping close to Ruby, who examined them warily out of the corner of her eye while sipping her virgin strawberry daiquiri. The larger one leaned against the bar belligerently, while the one with the broken horns continued surveying the room. He glared for a moment at the people in the white uniforms, who hunched in on themselves and avoided his gaze.

“We're looking for a woman,” the taller man said.

“Well, this is a bar,” Qrow drawled. “It's too early for most people to be here, so if you're looking for someone try in the evening. We're pretty popular, 'cept we don't exactly have a lady's night.”

“That's not what I meant,” the man growled, raising his Scroll and showing it to him. “We're looking for her. Her name's Blake Belladonna, but she might be using an alias.”

“Haven't seen her,” Qrow said with a shrug.

The man's eyes narrowed. “She hasn't come in here? There aren't many places she could go, and she's probably trying to find a way off world.”

“Haven't seen her,” Qrow repeated.

“Maybe some of these other folks have,” he said. “Hey, you! Girl!”

Ruby looked over at him wide eyed. He was looming over her, his Scroll thrust in her face. The picture was a candid photo of the woman Yang was currently snuggling as she scowled at the camera in some dimly lit room. Ruby couldn't help noticing the gun and machete strapped to the woman's side in the picture, as well as the bullet proof vest she was sporting.

“Wh-what?” Ruby stammered.

“Have you seen her or not,” he growled.

“No,” Ruby said quickly. “Haven't seen her.”

He somehow loomed even more over her. “Really? You won't like what happens if you lie to me.”

“She said she hasn't seen her,” Qrow said. “I answered your question, now quit harassing my customers. This is a bar; get a drink or get out.”

“Shut up,” the man said. “Did you see her or not?”

“No!” Ruby squeaked loudly.

“I said, this is _my_ bar, and I don't want you harassing my customers,” Qrow said dangerously, pulling a sawed off shotgun out from under the bar and pointing it at the man's head. “Now leave.”

The smaller man started to reach for his gun, but stopped when there were a series of clicks as safeties were released and rounds were chambered. Looking around the room, Ruby noticed several of the patrons had pulled out handguns and were pointing them at the newcomers. Ruby's own rifle was folded up and stowed in her work bag, which she really wished she hadn't left with Yang's hover bike.

Fortunately the two Faunus weren't complete idiots and decided not to press their luck. “Fine. We'll remember this.”

Once they left the woman, Blake apparently, moved out of under Yang's arm. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Any time,” Yang said with a sly grin. “You don't even have to be in trouble to snuggle up to me if you want.”

Before she could reply, although based on her narrowing eyes Ruby suspected that it would be a sharp one, Qrow spoke up. “So, Blake Belladonna was it? What'd you do to get the White Fang hunting you down?”

“White Fang?” Ruby asked. She'd heard the name before somewhere, but it wasn't coming to her. It definitely didn't sound like any of the local pirate syndicates.

Blake stood and dropped some lien on the bar. “Thanks for the drink and the help, but I should get moving. I need to find some better cover than someone's arm around me.”

She left quickly, ignoring Yang offering help as she strode out onto the street. After a moment of silence Ruby repeated her question. “Who's the White Fang?”

Qrow tucked away his gun and grabbed a glass, cleaning it slowly with his rag as he explained. “They used to be a Faunus Rights group. Did a lot of good work trying to get equal rights on more worlds. From what I've heard things have gone sour lately; the Navy calls 'em a terrorist organization, now.”

“Terrorists?” Ruby asked. “What would terrorists be doing _here_? I mean… are there even any Faunus on Patch?”

“Not many,” Qrow said. “The real question is why's Yang's crush on the run from terrorists. Maybe she tried to stop them from bombing a passenger liner or something. Maybe they figured out she sells Faunus kids into slave labor on backwater mining colonies and are out to punish her.”

“She didn't seem like the sort of person to do that,” Yang objected.

Qrow shook his head. “Just because she's a pretty face doesn't mean she's a good person. There's a lot of monsters out there who can smile and charm you until they stab you in the back, and lots of otherwise normal seeming people who think Faunus are just animals and they never should've been given equal rights.”

“But what if she's some kinda crusading hero, stopping terrorists and saving people!” Ruby said excitedly. “She could be, like, a superhero or something!”

Even Yang, who obviously wanted to believe the best about the woman she'd been trying to put the moves on gave her a disbelieving look, making Ruby deflate. “She could be…”

“Probably not,” Qrow chuckled, before looking serious again. “Either way she's trouble. You should probably let her deal with her own problems. From the picture she looks like she knows her way around a fight, so I wouldn't worry about her, anyway.”

Yang looked a bit down, but quickly rallied. It wasn't unusual for her to meet half a dozen new love interests in a week, and while she usually successfully wrangled a date with them, it also wasn't uncommon for her to get sick of them before the first date was half over and move onto the next guy or girl without even stopping for ice cream. Some people thought bad things about that, but Ruby knew Yang was a romantic who was just trying to find the right one. She watched her sister head over to the bounty board, hoping to find a job that she'd enjoy that actually paid enough to be worth the trouble.

Ruby hesitated for a bit longer while she finished her drink, casting a couple of glances at the table of SDC employees while she did. They had dark looks on their faces as they whispered to each other, and it made Ruby even more nervous about going to their ship. Still, the thought of working on some cutting edge merchant ship from Atlas finally convinced her to finish her drink and get up.

“Bye, Uncle Qrow,” she said cheerfully.

“See ya, kid,” he answered, taking her glass. “Be safe.”

She waved bye to Yang, who distractedly returned it, and then grabbed her backpack from the hover bike. It had a locking clasp which she quickly undid, glancing inside at the folded rifle, a change of clothes in case she got messy, and her toolkit, before she slung it over her shoulder and started walking to the spaceport.

It was still a beautiful Patch night, with a tapestry of stars overhead, and as always she enjoyed looking up at them. She wondered what it would be like to look out a porthole and see them from a starship, and she was so lost in that daydream that she almost missed the incoming clouds obscuring the stars far away. She frowned, hoping that it wouldn't storm, and as usual she was glad to always be wearing a hooded cloak.

The spaceport was pretty primitive as such things went, simply being a series of fenced in concrete slabs to serve as landing pads, well lit during the long Patch nights regardless of the time of day for the people to help provide security. Fortunately she'd known the dock master for years, and he'd given her her own keycard, so she didn't even have to talk to anyone to get inside.

The closest two landing pads featured the ships she'd already been rejected for working on. One was a fairly standard tramp freighter, while the other was a large if old yacht. She kept walking past them, imagining what kind of merchant ship the SDC people could've been using. If she remembered correctly they were a super wealthy Dust company based out of Atlas, so definitely something shiny chrome, with the latest tech and the fastest engines. Maybe even giant canons to help fend off pirates!

What she found when she reached it was anything but that. The ship was shaped like a squat, fat arrowhead, but without the sleek lines or any apparent aerodynamics. At the very front was a large cockpit area made from one way glass, appearing frosted from the outside, and not too far behind it was the lowered boarding ramp. At the middle of the ship was a large cargo door on the side, although it was closed and the ramp wasn't down.

Ruby unlocked the gate and slipped in, locking it behind her again before coming closer for a better look. The ship was a dingy grey color, and she could see signs that it had once been painted a simple white, although years of landing on strange planets had worn down the color. The hull was also scratched and pitted all over, and she whistled a little when realized just how much wear and tear the ship had undergone.

It wasn't some new, cutting edge ship, but instead a well loved merchant ship still flying despite it's great age. While she'd been looking forward to working on something brand new, the more she examined it the more excited Ruby became. It wasn't just a ship, it was a _classic_ , and she really, really wanted to work on it. Given its age, it was almost incomprehensible that the ship didn't have _some_ work that needed to be done, and she really, really wanted to be the one who did it.

She knew that it was a bad idea to touch anything without permission, but when she saw the maintenance hatch for the plasma injectors she just couldn't resist any longer. Would they still be stock original systems? If so they would probably be a HEP based system, and he'd never seen one in person, just some pictures in one of the old engineering journals she'd read on her Scroll…

She was soon waist deep in the maintenance panel, oohing and awwing at the ancient but perfectly functional system. It was part of the first generation of modern plasma drives, back before they'd figured out better ways to micronize components, and at the time they made ships travel far, far faster and with more agility than ever before. They still put out an impressive amount of power, and she could see signs that they'd actually been customized at some point. She needed to do some digging in the engine room, but she suspected that there was a custom engine profile that could be activated to make the ship fly even faster than the specs should've allowed for, maybe even fast enough to keep up with modern military ships-

“You!” a shrill voice yelled from behind her.

She jumped in shock, banging her head on the metal inside of the maintenance hatch and yelping in pain. She slowly crawled back, paling as she suddenly remembered what she was doing. She'd climbed halfway inside of a stranger's ship without permission, which meant that there was no chance she'd get to work on it for real. She'd screwed everything up, and she just hoped that the owner wouldn't press charges…

Ruby was preparing to plead her case, or even grovel if necessary, when she finally saw the woman who'd yelled at her. Her jaw dropped in shock for a moment and she found herself unable to speak or even listen.

She was the most beautiful woman Ruby had ever seen. Her perfect, sharply featured face was pale, and only marred by a recent scar, which somehow made her even more beautiful. Her blue eyes were brighter and clearer than any she'd seen before, and her long white hair was gorgeous. She was also yelling at Ruby, making her instinctively hunch in on herself, stammering the first thing that came to mind when the shouting stopped.

“Wh-what?”

The woman crossed her arms and huffed loudly. “I said, how dare you mess with my ship! I don't care how much you desire illicit narcotics, you cannot steal my copper wiring!”

“What?”

“Are you completely braindead? Or are you just going through withdrawals?”

“Withdrawals? What are you talking about?”

“I'm asking the questions here! You were stealing from me!”

“I wasn't stealing anything, honest!” Ruby yelped, sudden mental images of having to call Yang to come bail her out filling her head. “I was just curious!”

“Curious!” the woman shouted incredulously. “ _Curious_!? You broke into the spaceport, accessed a maintenance hatch, and then practically climbed inside my ship, and you claim you were just _curious?!_ ”

“I didn't break in!” Ruby shouted, fumbling for her keycard and actually dropping it in her haste to pull it out. “See! I've got a keycard and everything. I'm not a thief, honest! I help repair ships when they come into port. A lot of ships need maintenance, you know? So I help out so ships can leave faster. I'm really good at working on ships! I'd never steal anything, really! And I know I shouldn't have opened the hatch, but I've never worked on a ship this old, and I was really curious to see what the plasma injection-”

“Stop!” the woman shouted over her babbling, holding up a hand. Ruby gulped and hunched lower, sure that she was about to get arrested. “Just stop.”

“I'm sorry,” Ruby whimpered. “Please don't throw me in jail. White and black stripes would look weird on me!”

“What part of 'stop' did you not comprehend!” she snapped, making Ruby whimper even more pathetically. After a moment the woman sighed and began to squeeze the bridge of her nose like she had a headache. “You said you can repair ships?”

“Yes!” Ruby babbled. “I'm really good at it! I've been repairing stuff my whole life, but I love starships! I always wanted to go into space like my mom did, but I've never been able to, but I study them all the time and I've helped out on a bunch of ships, honest, so-”

“STOP!” the woman shouted. “Will you cease your mindless prattling? Or I really will have you arrested!”

“Eep!”

The woman took several deep breaths, before finally lowering her hand and looking Ruby right in the eyes. “Now then. Are you really capable of repairing a ship? Without babbling this time!”

“Yes,” Ruby said, biting her lip to keep from saying anything else. She was so nervous that words just wanted to vomit forth, or maybe that was her breakfast. Either way she doubted that the woman would appreciate it.

“Then follow me,” she said. “If you actually know what you're doing, then I won't have you thrown in prison or fined within an inch of your life. Understood?”

“Yes, ma'am!”

The woman turned and stalked away, her white skirt flaring dramatically behind her. Ruby scrambled to her feet, grabbing her pack and trotting after the other woman as she headed back to the ramp. After a few long moments of silence she couldn't contain herself anymore. “Um, I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose. What's your name? I mean, if I'm going to be working on your ship. It just seems like maybe I should know who you are, and-”

“You just don't stop talking do you,” the woman said, sounding very tired. “My name is Weiss. I'm the captain and owner of this ship.”

“Hello, Weiss!” Ruby said, smiling brightly, which slowly fell when the other woman didn't even look at her. “Right. Sorry. I-”

“Just be quiet,” Weiss snarled as she opened the airlock.

Ruby bit her lip as she struggled to contain her nervous babbling, instead studying the inside of the ship. Like the outside it had been painted a simple white once upon a time, and while the color hadn't faded as badly as on the hull of the ship, it really could use a new coat of paint. The other thing she noticed was the sudden decrease in gravity as soon as she stepped on board. She was used to that, as ships tended to use standard gravity even when docked, but that didn't mean she wasn't clumsy whenever she found herself suddenly weighing less than she was used to.

The only sound as they walked through the ship's main hall was the clatter of their shoes on the deck plating, and the quiet drone of the life support systems recycling fresh, breathable air. Or at least she assumed it was doing its job. She was breathing fine, so most likely that wasn't the problem she was being brought to work on. She really wished that Weiss would say something!

The mess hall showed little signs of individuality, making Ruby frown a little. Usually even in tightly run ships there were containers of mustard sitting out, or board games ready to be played during off hours. Like the rest of this ship, the only thing resembling personality were dings and scratches that showed just how much everything had been used. Nothing felt lived in, however.

The cargo bay wasn't empty at least. It was loaded with crates, and Ruby was curious what was being transported, but that was pushed aside as she considered how quiet the ship was. Were all of the crew besides the young captain in her uncle's bar? Sometimes captains were a little aloof, but not so much so that they were the only ones onboard while the crew relaxed… not that the crew had looked very relaxed.

Finally they reached the engine room, and for the first time since meeting Weiss Ruby found herself relaxing a little. Sure, the room was ancient and somewhat poorly maintained, but it only needed some hard work and love and it would be humming along just the way a ship was supposed to be. To the untrained eye it might've been rundown, but to her it was a classic needing some tender loving care.

“The forcefield modulator isn't working,” Weiss said suddenly.

Ruby stopped taking in the room and looked at her companion. “But you can't enter a wormhole without-”

“I know,” Weiss interrupted her. “Which is why it needs to be repaired. You claimed to be able to repair ships, didn't you?”

“Of course!” Ruby said.

“Then fix it.”


	5. Opportunity

Weiss awoke to the sound of rain hitting the roof. It took her a little while to recognize it, since it snowed most of the year in the remote part of Atlas that her family's compound was built on. Had she spent the night in one of the family penthouses in one of the major cities? She didn't remember a performance, and the rain sounded strange anyway…

She then recalled leaving her family's home forever, and her eyes widened in shock as she sat up and looked around. She was in the captain's cabin, the largest living quarters on the ship, although it was smaller than her childhood bedroom had been. For furniture it had a large double bed, a work desk with chair, and glass fronted shelves along the walls. There were steps up leading to the central ship's corridor next to the closet, and a private bathroom. Other than a single beloved painting of a red leaved forest hung above her bed and her clothing in the closet, the cabin was entirely empty and undecorated.

She stood and peered out one of the large portholes on either side of her bed. It was raining, not hard but a steady drizzle, and it was still dark out. A glance at the clock told her that she'd fallen asleep almost two hours before, having felt drained after her crew left and then yelling at the mechanic she'd met outside.

Her eyes widened, and she turned and all but ran to the stairs up, climbing them quickly and slapping the door open button, peering out into the corridor beyond warily. She hadn't intended to fall asleep, having only wanted some peace and quiet, but laying down on her bed had apparently been a mistake. Fortunately she was still dressed, so she didn't have to wait to see if Ruby really was working on the ship, or if she'd been right in the first place, and the girl had been stripping valuable metals to sell for drugs. She'd heard that poor people did that sort of thing, and with the amount of time she'd given her she could've already snorted or shot up whatever drugs she'd bought.

The mess hall was undisturbed, and a quick check showed nothing missing, although without a cook she didn't know what she'd do with most of the supplies. Still, that at least meant that Ruby hadn't eaten all of her food in some drugged binge-gluttony, but that might've meant she was simply industrious with her thefts. Who knew what backwater local narcotics might do to addicts.

The cargo hold was similarly unpilfered, and she slowed when she reached the door to the engine room, as she could hear something banging within. Weiss gripped the hilt of her Dust Blade, swallowing hard at the thought of confronting a dangerous addict in a confined space. If she swung her weapon and missed she'd destroy even more of her ship. If she hit, then she'd be killing someone.

With one last steadying breath she hit the open button and watched the iris valve spiral open. The engine room… wasn't a complete disaster. The machine she'd previously identified as the forcefield modulator was in pieces spread across half of the floor, and sitting in the middle of it delicately tweaking some small electronic component with a soldering iron was Ruby.

Weiss watched her for a minute, and when she sighed and set down her tool Weiss cleared her throat loudly. Ruby jumped, obviously not having heard the door open, and looked over at her with her silver eyes wide open. Her face had several long smears of grease, and for some reason the deer in the headlights look combined with the messiness made her look… cute.

“Oh!” Ruby said. “Weiss! I was still working! You… I'm sorry I'm taking so long. It had a bunch of problems, but I've been trying really, really hard… please don't yell at me.”

Weiss suddenly felt guilty for the first time about how she'd been treating the girl. She obviously wasn't a drug addicted copper thief. Instead she'd apparently bullied the mechanic so much in their brief meeting that she left her terrified even hours later. Suddenly memories of the way her father had treated his employees made her stomach twist unpleasantly. Like father like daughter, she thought grimly.

She put on her best attempt at a smile, but apparently it had the opposite effect from what she wanted as Ruby gulped and turned red. She had just hoped to put her at ease, not make her even more nervous. Clearing her throat, she spoke gently. “It's okay. I'm… I shouldn't have yelled at you earlier. I thought you were a thief trying to steal the wiring from the ship for drug money.”

Ruby's brow scrunched up. “But… why would I steal wire?”

“It's valuable and can't be traced?” Weiss suggested.

Ruby suddenly giggled. “Not that valuable. I mean, half the stuff in this room would be worth a ton of money to the right people… not that there's that many right people on Patch. If someone wanted to get a bunch of money from ship parts the Dust would probably be the easiest way. I mean, it's worth a lot, and it's not easy to get out here. You wouldn't believe how much trouble I have to go to to keep my sister's hover bike flying! Oh god, it's happening again. Why do I keep rambling?”

This time it was Weiss who giggled, her expression turning a little shocked at the action. How long had it been since she'd laughed even a little? Certainly not since… she didn't want to think about that. “So… do you think you can fix it?”

“Yeah,” Ruby said, smiling happily. “You had some spare parts in storage, and I was able to use them. The modulator had some burned out circuits… I think something's wrong with the power system, but it seems like it's working fine now. You really need to get your engineer to keep a close eye on it, though, or it'll just burn out again. When's he getting back? If you're going to be in port for a few days we can probably trace the problem. I think it's probably a power fluctuation related to the fusion power system, but-”

Weiss had felt herself start to relax as she listened to Ruby talk about her repair work. Weiss knew a lot about Dust, along with a thorough general education that meant she at least knew the words that the mechanic was saying, but she was obviously well out of her depth when it came to any details. Still, it was reassuring to hear her speak so confidently about her work, until her existing engineer was mentioned. Before Weiss could figure out what to say, or even if she should interject into the stream of jargon she heard Ruby's stomach growl.

“S-sorry,” Ruby stopped talking with a blush, looking down sheepishly.

“You've been working for several hours now,” Weiss said, giving her an out. Perhaps if she fed the woman she could delay any discussions of payment, as Weiss didn't have much in the way of spare Lien available to her at that moment. Maybe if she was friendly after pushing her so hard earlier Ruby wouldn't notice, and that would let her save much needed money for later in the trip. “Come on, we can get something in the mess.”

Ruby grinned and scampered to her feet, starting to jog over to Weiss until she tripped over some part she had placed on the floor. Her arms pinwheeled, and any efforts to save herself only made things worse as she stumbled forward. She stepped on something with a loud crunch before she hit the deck.

“Owie...” Ruby moaned.

“Are you alright?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said before picking up a broken circuit. “I don't think this part is, though…”

“You… you _dolt_!” Weiss shouted, making Ruby cringe in on herself. Seeing that Weiss closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. She was not her father, no matter how much the idiot in front of her made her want to rip her hair out. She didn't have anyone else who could fix it, so if she threw the dunce out she was in deep trouble.

“Sorry,” Ruby said quietly as she shakily stood. “I'm really, really sorry. I'll fix it, I swear!”

Weiss took one more deep breath before opening her eyes to glare at the idiot. “Are you always this clumsy?”

“No!” Ruby objected. “I mean, I'm not really a sportsy type person outside of track and I'm pretty good with a rifle, but I'm not _that_ clumsy. I just… I'm not used to this gravity.”

Weiss thought about pressing harder, but between her own guilt at bullying the only person willing to help her, and the plausibility of that statement, as during her brief time off of the ship Weiss had noticed that the gravity was greater than onboard, she decided to accept it at face value. Besides, it was hard to stay angry at Ruby when she was staring at her with her big, sad silver eyes.

“Fine,” Weiss sighed. “Just… if you can fix it in a timely fashion then I'll forget about it.”

“Really?!”

“Yes,” Weiss snapped. “Now, if you want food then I suggest following me… carefully this time.”

“Right,” Ruby said with a grin, picking her way with care across the messy engine room. No one said anything as they walked, Ruby fidgeting obviously but not willing to say anything, and Weiss just enjoying the silence. It was a little awkward, but it was nothing compared to a Schnee family dinner, so she ignored it easily.

When they reached the kitchen they both hesitated, glancing at each other for long moments without either of them actually doing anything. Finally Ruby broke the silence. “Um… thanks for the food?”

“Yes, well, help yourself,” Weiss said.

They both stood there for a while longer. “It's your mess… I'm not sure what to get. I'll be fine with anything, really. No allergies, and choosers don't start begging.”

“That's beggars can't be choosers,” Weiss said. “Feel free to get whatever you like.”

Suddenly Ruby giggled. “You don't know how to make food do you?”

“I can!” Weiss said, storming over to the cabinets. They were designed to hold their contents even if the ship maneuvered sharply, or lost gravity, and it took her several tries to figure out how to open the first door, only to find nothing but raw dry staples. She had no idea what one did with a bag of flour the size of pillow, but she certainly couldn't turn it into real food.

“It's okay if you don't know how to cook,” Ruby said.

“I'm not incapable,” Weiss said. “I can take care of myself.”

Ruby moved over and put a hand on her shoulder. Weiss stiffened at the unexpected contact, and after a moment Ruby pulled her hand away. “I don't really know how to do much, either; my dad and sister do all the cooking at home. I bet there's some ready to eat food around here somewhere.”

“I could make something,” Weiss insisted, before clearing her throat. “However, if you don't want to wait until something is made from scratch then I suppose we can find something that only requires a little preparation.”

“Sounds good,” Ruby said. It was obvious that both knew it was a bad lie, but the other woman was kind enough not to call her out on it.

After a few long minutes of searching Ruby found a supply of ready to eat rations in one of the cabinets. The food was in individually sealed pouches, and was intended to be used when the kitchen was out of operation for whatever reason. Weiss was highly doubtful that the silver foil blocks could actually be edible, but there were simple instruction on the back complete with diagrams, and in moments the meals were heating on their own as they sat across from each other at the table.

“Thanks for the food,” Ruby said with a grin.

“It's only rations,” Weiss said as she continued to eye both the pouch and the timer she'd set on her Scroll. She didn't want to admit it, but the smell starting to fill the air wasn't terrible.

Ruby tried her's, smiling when she tasted it. “Hey! That's not bad. I've had some of these things before and they were way worse than these!”

Weiss bit her lip, far less excited to try it, before finally spooning a little into her mouth. She chewed carefully, eventually swallowing to answer Ruby, who had been eyeing her curiously, waiting for her response. “Its… alright. I think it's about the same as the food the crew cooked for me on this trip.”

“Are you sure they weren't just heating these up and putting them on plates for you?” Ruby asked.

Weiss opened her mouth then closed it, narrowing her eyes at the possibility. “I don't know. I've never seen them cook. These are much more expensive to replace than the raw cooking supplies, and if they weren't going to use them then the perishables shouldn't have been purchased in the first place!”

Ruby giggled, making Weiss almost snap at her, until she realized that Ruby wasn't really laughing _at_ her, not in an insulting way. She just… was enjoying herself and had laughed. It suddenly occurred to Weiss that it had been a very long time since she'd been around anyone who was happy to be around her, and that was despite how she'd acted when they'd met that morning. She found herself smiling and response, and Ruby grinned back at her brightly.

“So you work on ships that come into port?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah, plus, you know, any other repair work I can get,” Ruby said. “I'm good at fixing stuff, and I like doing it, so I do it whenever I can. But I really like working on ships.”

“Why?” Weiss asked, genuinely curious.

Ruby slowed down her chewing and looked down at her plate, stirring the food with her fork. “Well, I… my parent's met when they travelled around out there. They settled down here after my sister was born, but I heard all kinds of stories about what it was like. I always dreamed of following in mom's footsteps, you now? I want to get out there and see the universe someday. What about you? How'd you get to be captain of a ship?”

“I own it,” Weiss said with a shrug. “It was my grandfather's ship, but it'd been mothballed for a while. He inspired me when I was younger, and I decided to follow his example to make my own way in the universe. So I acquired a load of cargo, resupplied the ship, hired a crew and started flying. I've only been captain for a few weeks now.”

“Still, that's amazing,” Ruby said. “So, where's the rest of your crew? Was it just the four of them I saw in the bar?”

Weiss looked down at her food, stirring it for a moment with a spoon. “It… was just the four of them.”

“When are they getting back? If you've got some time there's some stuff that could be fixed up to make things go better.”

“They aren't,” Weiss said, setting down her spoon. “They quit this morning.”

“Quit?”

“They didn't realize that the ship would be as antiquated as this, and the forcefield modulator breaking down was apparently the last straw,” Weiss said quietly. “Also, I'm… difficult to get along with. They decided that they'd rather wait on this planet for another opportunity than to continue to put up with this situation… with me.”

“That's awful!” Ruby said. “You were a little mean, but I was the one touching your ship when I wasn't supposed to!”

Weiss shook her head. “Even if you had been trespassing, I both assumed the worst about you and treated you very poorly. I can understand why people wouldn't want to be on my ship.”

“No way,” Ruby said. “That's just wrong! I mean, you've been giving me food and being nice to me now! If you acted like you did outside all the time I can see them leaving, but it still wouldn't have been right to leave you right in the middle of nowhere! Without the ship working how could you leave? And you'd need a crew too, right? How are you going to fly the ship by yourself?”

“Thank you,” Weiss said softly, blinking back tears. “I probably acted more like I did outside with them. They were all older, and it felt like they were going to do what they wanted instead of following orders. It felt like I had to push them if I wanted anything done, and having never actually run a ship before… I didn't really know how to do everything right anyway. I mean, I've studied it thoroughly, and researched everything that I could, but actually commanding a ship is… it's not the same.”

“Still,” Ruby said, frowning. “They seemed like jerks in the bar. And like I said, other than when we first met you've been kinda nice! At least not totally un-nice!”

Weiss gave her a weak smile. “Thank you… I think. And I'm sorry. For how I treated you outside. I shouldn't have assumed that you were a drug addict trying to steal my ship's wiring.”

Ruby giggled. “That was pretty silly… you know, I do know how to cook one thing. We can make it together! My mom used to make it for me, and it always made me feel better.”

“What's that?” Weiss asked.

“Cookies!”

“Isn't that… kind of childish?”

Ruby gasped. “You take that back! Chocolate chip cookies are the second best food in the world! Have you ever had home made chocolate chip cookies?”

“No,” Weiss said. “I never really ate many sweets as a child.”

“Then you have to now!” Ruby insisted, hopping up and running over to the cabinets.

As it turned out, they did have everything she needed to make cookies, even a small bag of chocolate. After washing her hands for a while to make sure she didn't have any oil on them the two began to work together. Weiss was at a loss most of the time, but Ruby somehow kept finding ways to include her in the work, and soon she found herself smiling at Ruby's prattle and antics as they made a large batch of cookies. They finally sat down again once they were in the oven, smiling at each other happily.

“See, I knew they'd make you feel better, and they aren't even cooked yet!”

“Thank you, Ruby,” Weiss said. “I… thanks. For helping fix my ship, and for making cookies, and just… thanks.”

“Sure thing,” Ruby said. “And I'll make sure you can fly again before you know it! It'll be a few hours, but I'll get it fixed up, promise!”

“You said you wanted to travel,” Weiss said slowly. “If you fix the ship… would you like to come with me? I need an engineer, and I can't think of anyone else I would want more.”

Ruby's silver eyes went wide, and she began to almost vibrate in place. “Really?”

“Really,” Weiss said.

”YES!” Ruby shouted, lunging over the table to wrap Weiss up in a hug, nearly taking her to the ground from the impact.

Weiss stiffened up, not used to such casual affection. She also remembered her initial thoughts about Ruby when she'd first seen her. The girl was quite pretty, and the way she acted was… cute. She also felt really good pressed up against her, and even better when Weiss awkwardly returned the hug.

Then Weiss remembered how her last romance had ended, making her scar ache, and she cleared her throat, pulling back slightly. Ruby returned to her seat, grinning broadly despite a blush of her own. “Hey, what about a pilot?”

“I know how to fly a ship,” Weiss said after clearing her throat. “I'm not a great pilot, but I can get us to a world where we can hire someone capable.”

“My sister can fly stuff!” Ruby said. “She's really good!”

Weiss hesitated, not wanting to agree to hire someone without meeting them first. After what happened with her last crew she didn't want to depend upon anyone without knowing that they would actually work with her. On the other hand, her piloting knowledge was more theoretical than practical, and Ruby might not want to come in the end if her sister didn't get a chance to come along.

Weiss felt like two paths were stretching out before her. In one she spurned help and tried to make her way through the stars alone to spite her father. In the other, she gathered a crew like Ruby and followed her grandfather's example. Put that way, it was an easy choice, made easier by only one option letting her spend time more time with Ruby. “I can at least speak with her.”

“Okay,” Ruby said. “I'll get started on fixing the ship, and you can go see her!”

They both started to stand, but then the oven dinged, making Ruby's eyes widen. “Cookies first! How could I forget cookies?!”


	6. Dangers

The rain falling on Weiss felt very strange. She'd almost never experienced it in any form, but the high gravity on Patch made the impacts even harder. It was just a light drizzle, but it almost felt like hail as it battered her. Fortunately she'd decided to wear a hooded poncho from the ship's stores, and while it wasn't the most stylish piece of clothing she'd ever worn, being of simple cut and plain white in color, it kept her mostly dry as she walked away from the spaceport.

She still couldn't quite believe the time she'd spent with Ruby. The young woman was childish, frustrating, and clumsy, but she'd actually made Weiss laugh and smile, and even enjoy eating cookies. If she'd met someone like her years before, would her life have been different? She couldn't imagine someone so pure surviving in the orbit Weiss inhabited on Atlas, so it was probably a moot point, anyway.

Part of her had always dreamed of having a crew of friends to sail the stars with. Her grandfather had stayed in touch with much of his crew until he'd died, but after seeing the kind of people she'd initially hired to man her ship Weiss had quickly decided that that wouldn't happen. She supposed that it was her own fault, though, for hiring people without ever meeting them solely based upon their resumes.

She wouldn't make the same mistake again. She didn't know if the 'Yang Xiao Long' Ruby had sent her to speak to would be a good fit for her crew, but she did need a pilot, and she really didn't want Ruby to decide that leaving her sister behind to travel with Weiss was a bad idea. If she could have her own sister Winter around…

Weiss shrugged that thought off, returning to the present. She had her sword with her, but she'd heard how dangerous ports could be, and while she actually didn't have very much money to steal, she really didn't want to get ransomed back home. Her father would be furious with her, and that was assuming he was even willing to pay to get her back.

She paused when she finally left the port to adjust her poncho, smiling as she looked around the nighttime streets. What had started as a terrible day, one where she'd almost given up and called her sister to come take care of her, now was one that gave her more hope for the future than she'd felt for a long time. Things were still hard, and it wouldn't take much to leave her in desperate condition and in need of rescue with no one likely to offer that succor, but she was still in charge of her own life, and she'd even made what could be a real friend. Life was actually… satisfying.

The smile on her face felt strange, making her cheeks hurt despite how small it would've been for most people. It had been so long since she'd had anything to really smile at…

Forcefully pulling her mind away from well trod dark paths, Weiss looked around again, trying to follow Ruby's scattered directions. The streets around the docks were nothing like those she'd seen on Atlas. On her former home, a street was either beautiful, without a spec of dirt or scratch on it, or the street was a dingy, crime filled mess only fit to be shown to people of her station on the evening news. The streets around her lacked polish or expensive decoration and upkeep, but they didn't look to be full of desperate poverty, either. They were simply utilitarian.

There were a fair number of shops open, and she took a few minutes to browse, peering in the windows to see what was available for sale. There was a clothing store that actually had used items, making Weiss' skin crawl to think about, a candy shop that made her consider buying something for Ruby, until she realized that with the cookies they'd made were surely more than enough sweets for weeks, and a diner called 'The Greasy Spoon', which sounded truly revolting.

She actually stopped completely when she found a bookstore, eyes wide as she looked through the window at shelves of physical books. They were very rare on Atlas, and while her father had had a library of actual paper books to show off, most printed centuries before, even plastic paged books like the ones in the store were very rare on her home world. It was hard to imagine why someone would want to waste the space on a book when they could simply get a copy on their Scroll, but the alienness of it was certainly intriguing. And she had so many empty shelves with nothing to put on them aboard her ship…

She eventually tore herself away, spinning and walking quickly to avoid being tempted. She had some money, but not nearly enough to go on a shopping spree, and she might need it much more later, especially since she had to hire a new crew. Ruby might be willing to work for the promise of payment when they reached Vale, but her sister or anyone else she had to hire might not.

She was so lost in thought, and in such a hurry to get away from the tempting shopping distrcit, that she didn't look where she was going, running into someone hard enough to bounce off and hit the ground with a pained grunt. It would've hurt doing that on Atlas, but hitting the ground on Patch with it's higher gravity _hurt_. For a moment she was afraid she'd broken something, but she was probably just bruised. Not for the first time she wished that AURAs were more useful for low speed, blunt impacts like that had been.

After a moment to recover she looked up, a harsh rebuke at the tip of her tongue despite it likely being her fault until she saw who she'd run into. The man was tall and muscular, and he didn't even bother to carry an umbrella or to wear anything special to protect himself from the rain, revealing the dog ears on top of his head. Standing next to him was another Faunus, this one shorter, with a pair of broken off horns and a gun tucked into his belt.

Weiss froze, eyes wide, unable to move as she stared up at the two of them. She'd never actually met a Faunus in person before, having only seen them in the distance on city streets, or on the news for the various protests and criminality caused by them on Atlas and other worlds. Her father _hated_ the Faunus, but after a number of assassination attempts against her family and company, Weiss had come to fear them. As a child she'd asked her family butler to check under the bed and in the closet for Faunus assassins, and as an adult she found herself frozen in place when confronted by the strangers.

“Watch where you're going,” the man she'd bumped into growled.

Weiss hated being scared, so she focused on how rude he just was and let herself be angry. Scowling, she climbed to her feet, adjusting her hood to both protect herself better from the rain and to let him see her glare at him. “Watch where _you're_ going, you brute!”

Satisfied, she started to walk past the pair, only to yelp as he grabbed her arm and turned her around. “Unhand me!”

“I thought they weren't serious,” the Faunus gripping her arm painfully tight said.

“Get off of me,” Weiss snarled, trying to remember her self defense classes. She had never been very good with unarmed combat, as while she was in good shape she wasn't very strong. The extra effort of trying to move on the higher gravity world wasn't doing her any favors, either. When he started to jerk her forward she finally lined up a good shot and kicked the man between the legs as hard as she could.

He let her go as he crumpled to the ground with a pained yelp. His companion laughed, a vicious, ugly sound, although he didn't take his eyes off of Weiss as he dropped a hand to his gun. “Yeah, she's a Schnee alright.”

Weiss stiffened, her hand dropping to her sword hilt, eyeing his gun warily. “How do you know who I am?”

“Your ex-crew sold you out,” the horned Faunus said, before chuckling harshly. “Hell, they did better than that. One of them actually tracked _us_ down just to tell us you were here. I don't know how awful you must be as a boss, but it must run in the family for them to hate you that much.”

Weiss couldn't hide her shock at that. She'd known that they were angry with her, but setting her up to be robbed and murdered by Faunus criminals was too much. If they were in the White Fang then she was worse than dead. She had no idea how to identify members of the White Fang, but as she imagined possible nightmare scenarios she decided that she didn't care to find out.

Before she could decide what to do the one she'd kicked climbed back to his feet, his face a thundercloud. He pulled a knife from his belt and started to limp forward, forcing Weiss to back up as she drew her Dust Blade. “I'm gonna enjoy skinning you alive.”

Before the man with the gun could draw it Weiss turned and ran. With her reach she could probably beat the man with the knife, although if his AURA was good enough he might be able to tackle her and overpower her before she could cut through it, but that was assuming she wasn't simply shot to death by his partner.

She turned the first available corner as the man with the gun opened fire. Bullets ricocheted off the brick wall, but she avoided actually being shot as made it into the alley. Unfortunately that was as far as she had thought things through, as she suddenly realized that she was facing a dead end.

She hesitated at the end, considering just cutting through the brick wall with her sword. It would easily cut through the brick, but if she did it wrong and made the wall collapse on her she would be caught if she survived the collapse. Unfortunately, fencing classes didn't cover controlled demolition, and she'd never even thought about the right way to commit such large scale vandalism.

Before she could make up her mind the Faunus reached the mouth of the alley looking furious. Weiss turned to face them, her sword up, but the man with the gun didn't hesitate, simply emptying his gun into her. It was like shooting fish in a barrel, as the narrow alley gave her no way to escape, and despite what she had seen in the occasional insipid action movie on the rare occasions she'd watched films, her sword was useless against firearms.

It was the first time she'd ever been shot, and the experience wasn't pleasant. She was hit four times, and while her AURA prevented any real injury, it felt like being punched repeatedly. It was painful, but she was able to keep her feet, even though she knew that she would have awful bruises later.

The gun's magazine emptied, and he ejected it, pulling out a fresh one from his belt. Before he could slot it into his gun a woman came up behind him with a sheathed machete in her hands and slammed it on top of his head. He stumbled in shock, his AURA barely slowing the hit down, but it wasn't enough to put him down, although it did stun him. The woman drew the machete blade from its sheathe and attacked him with a flurry of blows, first knocking the gun from his hand and then striking him repeatedly as he stumbled back, trying desperately to defend himself.

His companion turned away from Weiss and began to approach the woman, but Weiss finally rallied, assuming the proper fencing stance she had been taught and activating her Dust Blade. “Where do you think you're going?”

He half turned to face her when she lunged, slamming her sword into his gut with all of her might. He grunted, stumbling back slightly, but his AURA held. It was obvious that the two men had military grade AURA devices, and the forcefield was the only thing that did a good job of resisting the cutting edge of her Dust Blade. Still, the two men felt some impact from the attacks, just like she was in pain from being shot several times, and with enough hits their AURAs would break.

He wasn't going to let that happen easily, however. With a roar he charged her, his knife above his head to stab her as he closed. Weiss managed to dance backwards while slashing at him, and she veered to the right as she went. When he finally gave up on simply stabbing her and tried to jump at her in a flying tackle she dove to the ground and rolled under him, smiling in satisfaction as she regained her feet and saw that he had slammed into the brick wall.

Despite having the wind knocked out of him he regained his feet and turned to her, his expression dark and his nose bleeding, although he hadn't broken anything. He roared and lunged, not over committing and instead focusing on using his dagger. Weiss smirked, confident now as she slashed at his wrist, seeking to deflect the weapon as well as parry his blade. In her inexperience she didn't notice the telltale ripple from his AURA until the resistance against her sword ended.

With little more effort than swinging her weapon through the air she cleaved through his wrist, removing his hand completely. The injury was so clean that he actually took another swing at her with his stump, before a look of confusion crossed his face as he looked down at his arm. Blood began spraying in spurts from the artery, and he stared down in shock at the injury.

Weiss did her best not to vomit at what she'd done. He had been trying to kidnap her, maybe even kill her, but she was still unprepared for that. Her hands shook, making her Dust Blade rattle, and she swallowed hard. Glancing over when she remembered the others, she saw the mysterious woman watching her while standing over the other man, who had been knocked unconscious but otherwise appeared unwounded.

“You- you should hurry to the hospital,” Weiss said in a weak voice. “The cut is clean, so they should be able to reattach it if you hurry.”

The man glared up at her, glanced over at his unconscious partner, and then grabbed his hand, which was still gripping the knife. “The White Fang won't forget what either of you have done.”

With that he took off running, leaving his companion unconscious on the ground. There was an awkward silence, until finally Weiss turned off her weapon and stuck it into her belt again, facing the stranger with a weak smile. “Thank you, you saved me.”

The woman had dark hair and a bow on her head, and like her attackers hadn't bothered with anything for the weather. She had a gun on one hip, and her machete and its sheath now rested across her lower back. “That was some impressive sword work. If you hadn't hesitated in a few places I think you might've been able to take them both.”

“I…” Weiss hesitated. Part of her wanted to preen under the praise and brag about her martial skill, but her hands were still shaking after fighting off people trying to kill her. She couldn't imagine what her old bodyguards had been like to be able to face assassins on a regular basis, or her sister who joined the Navy and regularly went into combat with pirates and other criminals. It also felt wrong to brag about her skills when she had just used them to dismember a man, no matter how despicable. “I don't think so. If you hadn't been here he could've kept shooting me, and his friend probably would've captured me.”

“Alright,” the woman said. After another long moment where neither said anything she turned and started walking out of the alley.

“Wait!” Weiss called, running up to her. “I need to thank you properly for saving my life.”

“I couldn't let two criminals attack someone,” the woman said dismissively. “Besides, I had my own reasons to fight them… even though confronting them will cause me problems later.”

“All the more reason to thank you,” Weiss said. “Most people wouldn't get involved in something like that, especially if it would inconvenience them.”

“That's one of the problems with the galaxy,” the woman said. “If people didn't ignore the plight of others and only worry about themselves then things wouldn't be as bad as they are.”

“I… I suppose so,” Weiss said, looking back at the alley, where the rain was already washing away the blood she'd shed, and the other terrorist lay on his side unconscious. Weiss shuddered as she thought about the White Fang, and the implications of them being on Patch. Forcefully pushing that thought away she gave the woman her best smile. “But I'm being quite rude. I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Weiss Schnee. Thank you for saving my life.”

“Weiss _Schnee_ ,” the woman repeated, her brow scrunching up in anger and disdain as she said the last name like it was something foul. “You're a _Schnee_?”

Weiss felt her smile slowly drop. “Yes. I'm sorry that I don't have access to funds to appropriately compensate you right now-”

“Keep your blood money,” the woman said.

“What?”

“The Schnee Dust Company is built on the suffering of Faunus slaves,” the woman said. “It sells its Dust to criminals, pirates, and nations that every reputable world and corporation has long ago sanctioned, while making sure that no one has the ability to compete with them. Nothing could clean the blood off of your money.”

With that she turned and walked away, not even looking back at Weiss who simply stood there in the rain. Any other time she would've blown up at someone who dared treat her that way, but while standing in the rain on a foreign planet, her crew having not only abandoned her but sold her out to the White Fang, she was so overwhelmed that it was all that she could do to keep standing.


	7. Scum

Weiss scowled up at the cheap bar that Ruby had directed her to. She hadn't been expecting much from a dive on a backwater colony, but what she saw was even lower than her expectations. From the bikes out front, to the total lack of even paint on the rough cinderblock walls, to the 'clever' use of a crowbar on the sign, no doubt to help the illiterate become inebriated, Weiss was thoroughly unimpressed. She was also standing in the rain on a planet where the White Fang had just tried to murder her, so if going inside would find her a pilot and let her get off world sooner, then she would go into the bar, no matter how disreputable.

Somehow, the inside was even worse than the outside, and there were more than few people sitting around drinking despite the awful decor. She still wasn't sure why everywhere was open and everyone was up and about in the middle of the night on Patch, but seeing so many people in a bar while normal businesses were all running made her think that they were the sort to drink at all hours. The lack of anything resembling cleanliness, and the associated smell that produced, only reinforced her theory.

Looking around, she saw her former crew huddled drunkenly around a table. They looked surprised to see her, and she glared at them, her fingers itching to grab her sword and show them what she thought about them selling her out to the White Fang. Then she remembered chopping a hand off not even an hour before hand, and she decided to keep her sword tucked in her belt.

She walked up to the bar and carefully sat down, wrinkling her nose at the cheap stool and plain metal counter. It was uncomfortable, and she hoped that it was just her imagination making the stool feel sticky under her expensive skirt.

The bartender looked as ragged as his bar, and he narrowed his eyes distrustfully at her when he came close. “What do _you_ want.”

“Nothing this place is selling,” Weiss said disdainfully. “I'm looking for someone.”

“There's plenty of 'someones' around if you want 'company',” he drawled, gesturing at the alcoholics scattered around the bar.

Weiss' brow scrunched up in confusion for a moment, before she figured out what he meant. “Not like that!” she squawked, outraged. “I'm not looking something so… so _tawdry_ as that! I'm looking for a certain woman.”

He smirked. “There's fewer of those, but if you stick around long enough you can probably find 'someone'.”

Weiss ground her teeth together, all reservations about employing violence gone. She really wanted to throttle the man, but after a few deep breaths she regained her temper. “Not like that, you buffoon! I'm looking for someone named Yang Xiao Long. I'd heard that she should be here.”

His smirk faded and he gave her a hard look. She had written him off as a lowlife alcoholic serving other lowlife alcoholics, but something about his expression was suddenly very menacing. Her hand dropped to her sword warily, but he simply leaned against the bar, studying her. “Why are you looking for my niece?”

Without intending to she scooted back slightly on the stool, before straightening up and raising her chin defiantly. No matter how dangerous he suddenly seemed to be she refused to show weakness in front of some riffraff. She'd even proven herself capable of actually fighting less than an hour before, although just thinking about what she'd done made her swallow hard.

“You're Ruby's uncle?”

“I am,” he said, putting a hand under the counter. “How do you know Ruby?”

“She's working on my ship,” Weiss said quickly. “She wanted me to speak with her sister while she did.”

“I see,” he said, studying her carefully. “She's over there, playing cards.”

Weiss looked over and saw a game of cards happening at a table in the corner. Several rough looking men were playing, along with one woman. She was beautiful, with a mass of wild blonde hair and violet eyes. She was smirking with confidence as she clutched a handful of battered playing cards, leaning over in a way that emphasized her impressive cleavage as she tossed money on the table. Even from the other side of the room Weiss found herself a bit distracted by the sight, and the people within arms reach didn't stand a chance.

“Thanks,” Weiss said.

She stood, but before she could walk over to Yang, Ruby's uncle stopped her. “Just keep in mind, I don't care who you are Schnee, if you hurt my nieces your big sis will never find your body.”

Weiss spun around. “You know Winter?”

He simply ignored her, walking over and serving fresh drinks to a man further down the bar. Weiss stared at him, wondering if he had simply heard of her sister, or if he somehow knew her. It seemed impossible, but there was a strange familiarity to how he mentioned Winter…

Shaking it off, she eventually turned around and deliberately walked across the room. Yang was laughing confidently as she stood to grab the current pot of money, showing off the rest of her amazing figure as she did. Ruby was incredibly cute, but Yang was dangerously sexy, and Weiss had to take a moment to get herself in order. Looking at potential crew like they were actually auditioning for spots in a harem was the domain of trashy literature, and she refused to behave that way, even in her own mind. As a Schnee she was better than that; besides, she actually felt like Ruby could be a real friend, and hitting on her sister would probably ruin that.

The group was so into their game that they didn't even notice Weiss when she reached their table. Already a pile of money had built up again, this one larger than the last, and several of the players had folded, but despite that everyone was watching eagerly. Yang was still in, her smirk firmly in place, as was one other player, a massively built man wearing enough leather to either be a stereotypical biker or a shameless fetishist.

“Three of a kind,” the man in the leather said, setting down his cards to reveal three Jacks. He started to reach for the money, only to stop when Yang spoke up.

“That's impressive, really,” the blonde said. “My three Sevens look pretty sad next to your Jacks… good thing I've got a pair of Queens to go with them. Full house.”

Yang reached over, putting her hands on top of the pile of money with a grin on her face, until the man grabbed her arm to stop her. “Wait a minute.”

Yang glared at him. “Let go of my arm.”

Weiss saw her hands clenching into fists, one real and one artificial. She was surprised by the quality of Yang's prosthetic limb, as it looked similar to the high end ones soldiers used on Atlas, which was not what she'd expected from a small backwater like Patch.

After a moment the man snorted and let go, allowing Yang to drag the pot of money over to herself. He stood, as did his buddies. “Whatever,” he spat before storming over to the bar.

Yang spent a few moments organizing the stacks of Lien she'd won, before finally noticing Weiss standing nearby watching her. Weiss felt her back stiffen in annoyance as Yang blatantly checked her out, her eyes roaming up and down her body for a moment.

“Well hello,” Yang said with a smirk, leaning forward slightly to show off her own body to best effect. “I was just about to celebrate my winnings… wanna join me?”

Weiss pursed her lips, not sure how to react. Yang seemed flirty and crass, not at all what she'd expected from the sister of the well meaning if awkward Ruby. If she'd been sitting at the bar and Yang had started hitting on her she probably would've been a little interested, but watching her gamble and stare down criminals for her winnings made Weiss wary. Her family would've never let her walk into a bar like the one that she was in, and she certainly would've never associated with rough people like Yang.

Still, she needed a pilot, and she had put up with far worse than being hit on from some of the entitled upper class heirs, and she had to be polite to them even when they went too far. With Yang she could at least throw a drink in her face without it causing stock market fluctuations.

“I suppose,” Weiss said, pulling out the chair the leather clad man had been using, sitting down delicately.

“Nice to meet you,” the blonde said. “I'm Yang Xiao Long.”

“Weiss,” she answered.

“Just Weiss?”

“For now.”

“Ooh, a woman of mystery,” Yang said with a grin. “I like that. Tell me, what does a woman of mystery like yourself want to drink?”

Weiss doubted that she'd be able to get a good cup of coffee in a dingy bar, and the water would probably give her dysentery. She didn't like alcohol, but it was probably a safer pick. “Wine.”

“Sure thing,” Yang said with a grin, scooping up her winnings and heading over to the bar.

Weiss kept a close eye on her, not wanting to risk getting drugged, but without any fuss she got a glass of wine and a fruity drink complete with tiny umbrella from the bartender and came right back over. “Thank you.”

“No problem!” Yang said, slurping her drink. “So, what brings someone like you into a place like this?”

Weiss took a very small sip of her wine, doing her best to keep a straight face when she tasted it. It was obviously of very poor quality, bad enough that she couldn't help but wonder if the owner was refilling his bottles from a box. “Someone like me?”

“Yeah, I'd definitely remember someone like you if you lived on Patch, so you must've come from one of the ships,” Yang said. “You also don't look like the kind of woman who spends time in cheap dives like this.”

“I'm not,” Weiss agreed. “I was looking for you.”

Yang grinned. “It's nice to be wanted. I've been looking for you my whole life, too… or at least someone as beautiful as you.”

Weiss blushed slightly, before shaking her head. “N-no, that's not… your sister sent me to find you.”

The transition was startling. Yang went from flirty to dangerous in a heartbeat, reaching up to adjust her large, gold colored bracelets before speaking. “Ruby sent you? Is she alright?”

“She's fine,” Weiss said, waving a hand quickly. “She's working on my ship right now.”

“Your ship?”

“Yes,” Weiss said with a small smile. “I'm captain of the _Myrtenaster_ _,_ which just landed a few hours ago.”

Yang relaxed. “So, why'd my sis send you? Need someone hunted down?”

“Hunted down?” Weiss asked, brows scrunching up in confusion.

“I'm a bounty hunter,” Yang said. “I do other odd jobs too, anything that needs a bit of muscle and isn't on the wrong side of the law.”

“Oh,” Weiss said blankly. She wasn't expecting that. Why would a pilot do scut work in a port, violent scut work at that, instead of finding a ship to fly? “Actually, she said that you-”

Before she could finish the sentence someone suddenly loomed over the two of them. It was the leather clad man from earlier, and from the smell of his breath he had been drowning himself in hard liquor ever since his loss. His companions joined him, forming a semicircle that combined with the wall to keep both of them blocked in.

“Can I help you?” Yang asked.

“Yeah, you can give us our money back,” the man growled.

“If you're able to drink so much, I don't think you're exactly desperate for the money,” Weiss said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Shut up, rich girl,” he said, glaring at her hatefully. “Mind your own damn business.”

“Hey, leave her out of this,” Yang said.

“I can take care of myself,” Weiss said.

“That's not what your old crew said,” he replied with a nasty chuckle. “Seems like you're stranded here all alone. Maybe I should hit you up for a little loan instead of trying to get my money back from her.”

“How about you back off while you still have teeth,” Yang said dangerously.

Weiss looked past the ring of local rowdies, glaring angrily at her former crew, who were blatantly staring at the confrontation in progress. Not only did they try to arrange for the White Fang to kill her, but now they were sending local thugs after her. Most likely they'd already called her father and the Navy to tell them where she was, meaning that she needed to find a pilot and get off world _now;_ _c_ onvinced that she wanted to have Yang onboard or not, time was running out.

“There's no way some blonde bimbo was better at cards than us,” the man said. “You must've been cheating. So if you don't want us to show you what happens to cheaters then you can give us our money back.”

“What's going on over there?” the bartender called.

“Stay out of this!” the man shouted back, clenching his fists.

Meanwhile Yang had gone very, very still. She finally spoke, her hands clenching into fists as she did. “What did you call me?”

The man reached out grabbed a lock on her hair, rubbing it between his fingers before tugging on it. “I called you a blonde bimbo.”

The bartender huffed and rolled his eyes. “Try not to kill anyone.”

“Why would I kill anyone?” the man asked.

“I wasn't talking to you.”

“Huh?”

It was the last thing he was able to say before Yang punched him in the face. She did it with enough force that Weiss saw him spit out a tooth even with his AURA still being active, and before he'd even hit the ground Yang grabbed the table, lifted it above her head, and threw it at his friends, sending them to the ground. “Don't touch my hair.”

To his credit, despite the injury the leather clad man climbed right back to his feet, fists up as he sneered at her. “Cheap shot, girlie. I'm gonna-”

Yang darted forward, jabbing him in the jaw, before dancing back out of his reach when he took a swing of his own. She stepped into him once again, her fists up in a classic boxer's stance, landing a straight punch to his ribs that made him grunt loudly.

The men under the table managed to throw it off of themselves, and one of them decided to attack Weiss instead of helping with Yang. Weiss squeaked and climbed to her feet, backing away from him as her hand instinctively went to her sword. Then she remembered the kinds of injury it could inflict, and if she felt bad about dismembering a White Fang terrorist trying to kill her, she didn't even want to think about using it against some barfly.

Still, the man didn't look like he was going to play nice, and she wasn't like the brute she'd come to speak with, who was easily dominating her fight despite being ganged up on. It was only when she almost tripped over a chair while retreating that she stopped, picking it up and holding it front of her like a weapon.

The man hesitated, and Weiss studied her opponent. He was around her age, with half of his hair shaved and the other half long and died green. He had several facial piercings, and from the way he squinted she suspected that he had poor vision but was too proud to wear glasses and too cheap for corrective treatments. He had on a heavy leather jacket over a white shirt, and had a pair of dark pants tucked into combat boots.

He started to lunge for her, but Weiss grunted and shoved the chair legs into his chest. He stumbled from the blow, before grabbing onto the chair and trying to rip it from her hands. She had been expecting that, however, and while she wasn't even close to competing with him in terms of strength, she took him by surprise by immediately twisting the chair, ripping it out of his hands before bringing it around to slam into his side.

He yelped and stumbled back, and she didn't let up, raising and swinging the chair again and again, ignoring the burning in her arms from swinging something so heavy around. He stumbled away, trying to get some distance, but ended up tripping over her abandoned chair, and unlike herself he was far too awkward to correct his balance and simply fell to the ground.

Weiss followed up with several more swings with the chair while he was down, smiling in satisfaction when she finally saw his AURA flicker as she overwhelmed the forcefield. He had no doubt accumulated a lot of painful bruises already, AURA being more helpful against blades and bullets than fists and clubs, but the next hit probably broke a bone. At the very least it broke the chair, the cheap plastic frame cracking from the repeated blows, making her toss it aside once she was sure her opponent had no intentions of getting back up.

“Damn, you're tougher than you look,” Yang said, obviously impressed by Weiss' violence. She was standing with one foot on top of the man who'd started the fight, a grin on her face as she ignored his only remaining goon to admire Weiss beating a man with a chair. “ _Weiss_ to see you can take _chair_ of yourself.”

Weiss stared at her blankly while she panted to regain her breath. Swinging a chair was _a lot_ harder than swinging a fencing foil or her Dust Blade, and it wasn't something she wanted to do again if she could help it. “Did… did you just make a _pun?_ _Two_ puns?”

“Ah, you're _Weiss_ to my-”

“Look out!” Weiss interrupted, pulling her sword from her belt in one smooth motion and extending into a full lunge.

The thug they'd been ignoring had pulled some kind of heavy duty stun gun from his jacket, the gap between the metal tips of the weapon alight with electricity arcing between them. Weiss managed to hit his weapon with the tip of her sword, the blade passing easily through it and then the hand beyond, as apparently he either didn't own an AURA or it wasn't active.

The stun gun died, and he dropped it as she withdrew her sword as smoothly as possible, returning to a standing position as she and everyone else stared at the small, perfect hole through the middle of his palm. He raised it up in front of his wide eyes, and just as it began to gush with blood Weiss realized that she could actually see through his hand.

“Thanks,” Yang said. “That thing would've hurt. We should probably get out of here, though. Someone probably called the cops, and I don't want to make my sister bail me out again.”

“Yeah,” Weiss said, swallowing hard, unable to tear her eyes away from the damage she'd done. It was only when Yang touched her arm, making her jump that she tucked away her Dust Blade and followed her to the door. “Right… let's go.”

She could see her former crew on their scrolls. They looked shaken by the violence, but were no doubt contacting the local authorities to let them know what she'd done. She gave them one last glare, making them all look away, before finally heading back out into the rainy night.


	8. Launch

“No,” Weiss said, crossing her arms.

Yang smirked up at her, the hover bike humming as she powered it up. “Come on, it'll be fun. I'll give you the best ride of your life… you look like you could use one.”

Weiss scoffed. “I won't get on one of those deathtraps. Do you have any idea how many people die every year across known space riding hover bikes?”

Yang rolled her eyes. “That's what makes it fun. Besides, do you really want to play it safe all the time? Why would you be captain of ship out here in the middle of nowhere winning bar fights if you want to play it safe? Shouldn't you be at home where nothing can hurt you?”

“I didn't want to go into the bar, either! I probably contracted tetanus just by touching the doors, and who knows what that cheap swill he called wine is going to do to me.”

“Well, you can stay here and see what the cops think about your part of the bar fight, or you can hop on my hover bike and escape. Trust me, I've been picked up by the cops a few times, and if you thought Uncle Qrow's bar was bad…”

“I'm going to remember this,” Weiss said threateningly. She carefully put one leg over the bike, blushing furiously as she tried to adjust her skirt so that she didn't show too much to everyone they passed. It was entirely possible that the attempt was futile, and she was already showing off far more leg than she wanted strangers to see. The only positive was that it had at least stopped raining, although the sky was still dark with night and clouds.

“I certainly will,” Yang said cheerfully. “You might want to hold onto me, though. Unless you _want_ to fall off and get smeared into paste.”

“This is all your fault,” Weiss growled as she wrapped her arms around Yang, scooting closer so that she was pressed up against the boisterous woman. She was very warm, and in other circumstances she would've enjoyed the sensation. Instead she had to bite her lip to keep from screaming as the flying death trap lifted off the ground and blasted off, making both of their hair fly back like flags in the wind.

“Shouldn't we have helmets!” Weiss shouted.

“Probably,” Yang called back. “I didn't have time to grab them since you spent so long complaining! Besides, at these speeds you'd just die anyway!”

“I hate you!”

Yang just laughed freely as they blasted along just above the streets, flying far too fast and weaving in and out of side streets and traffic to put as much distance between them and the bar as she could. For the first few minutes Weiss had been convinced that they would simply die any second, but as time passed without anything going wrong she slowly began to relax. She would never admit it, but once she realized that Yang actually _was_ a good pilot the ride became a lot of fun.

She was thoroughly lost by the time the hover bike slowed down, and when it finally landed she had no idea where she was. It was a dingy parking lot of some kind, and despite the rest of the colony being full of life and people like it was the middle of the day, no one was around. From the rundown state of the surrounding buildings, she wasn't actually surprised.

“Where are we?” Weiss asked.

“On the far side of the space port,” Yang said. “That's where you want to be, right?”

“I suppose so,” Weiss said, carefully climbing off the back of the bike. “The port wasn't that big. Aren't we near the bar?”

Yang shrugged. “Not too far, but people don't use this side much. Just some warehouses and holding areas for cargo shipments.”

“Okay,” Weiss said dubiously. “You're leaving your bike here?”

“It'll be fine,” Yang said, climbing off. “The ship that landed this morning's yours, right?”

“Yes, the _Myrtenaster_ ,” Weiss said.

“Bless you,” Yang said, making Weiss roll her eyes again. “Come on, this way.”

Yang led them two blocks through the empty warehouse district until they reached a fence. She started to climb it, but stopped when Weiss spoke up. “What are you doing?”

“Getting into the spaceport,” Yang said.

“Why not use the gate?”

“It's locked,” Yang said with a shrug. “For some reason the dock master doesn't trust me with a key.”

“I can't imagine why,” Weiss said sarcastically, before pulling out her own copy of the key card. “I have one.”

“This way's faster, though,” Yang said.

“No, I am not climbing the fence,” Weiss said, looking for the gate and then walking quickly towards it. “This is why no one trusts you with a key.”

“Because I'm so awesome I don't need one?”

“Because you're a criminal who can't be trusted.”

“You're no fun,” Yang pouted. “Besides, I've never been convicted of anything! You just need to get the stick out of your ass and loosen up.”

“If 'loosening up' means avoiding prison on technicalities, I'll leave that to you,” Weiss said. Her father as well, as he was an expert at skirting every law between him and profit. Even with his army of lawyers there were more than a dozen worlds with open warrants out for his arrest.

“I'm gonna make sure you have a good time if it's the last thing I do,” Yang said.

“Does that mean you succeed at your goal if I dance on your grave?” Weiss asked as she unlocked the rear gate and let both of them inside the port.

“Yup,” she said cheerfully. “So until you _Weiss_ up and stop being a stick in the mud, I'll just have to keep _Yanging_ around.”

“Ugh,” Weiss groaned. “How many times are you going to make the same pun?”

Each of the landing pads were individually fenced in, and she looked through the wire at a ship on the way to her own. It was a yacht, and it was quite a bit newer than her ship, with a fresh coat of white paint covering the cylindrical vessel. A number of people were standing outside of it, and it was only when they came close that she recognized them as all having the same grey armored vests as the White Fang she'd seen earlier. In fact, she noticed the man whose hand she'd cut off, the appendage reattached and covered in a thick, heavy plastic cast.

Unfortunately, from the way he pointed and shouted, he had apparently noticed her at the same time.

“You know them?” Yang asked.

“Not as such,” Weiss said hesitantly, before starting to run as they pulled out guns and started firing at her.

Yang followed her, and she was glad that they both had high end AURAs as she was struck in the back with a bullet, which made her stumble until Yang helped her find her footing. As soon as there was an option to turn off the path they were on they both took it, rushing down a side road through the space port as the White Fang shouted and chased them.

“They seem to know you,” Yang said, glancing back and flinching when a bullet hit her in the forehead. She stumbled a little, obviously rattled by the impact, but she kept running.

The spaceport wasn't exactly the best place for cover. It was simply a series of concrete slabs surrounded by wire fences, all arranged in a simple grid with broad, paved avenues between them and the gates to the area. No matter how they ran they were simply in the open for too long, and while her AURA was in good shape, and Yang's had barely been triggered during her fist fight, several more bullets hit each of them, wearing away their defenses. Even high end AURAs like her's couldn't take much more, and soon one of the bullets would pass right through, tearing their insides to pieces.

Someone stepped out in front of them, pulled their arm back and threw something at them. Weiss started to stumble, assuming that it was a White Fang member who had either cut them off, or who had been posted as a guard elsewhere. The thrown object went past them, however, and when it hit the ground it began releasing a cloud of thick black smoke, blocking the shooters' line of sight.

It was the woman with the bow who had saved her when she was ambushed earlier. Weiss wasn't about to question why she was there, or worry about anything she might've said. If she had access to her family's wealth she would've paid the woman any amount of money she asked for in that moment.

“This way,” the woman said when they came close.

“You aren't just an angel, you're a guardian angel,” Yang shouted.

“Focus on running,” the woman said.

“I don't want to leave Weiss-y here behind,” Yang said. Weiss suddenly realized that Yang had actually been running slower than she could've in order to keep pace with her, and in fact had been running slightly behind her to block her from being struck by as many bullets. While quite active and athletic for a rich heiress, Weiss was also short, and she was used to significantly less gravity than Patch had. “Besides, usually when my heart starts pounding this fast I'm either in danger or in love. Hard to turn down both.”

“You're impossible,” the woman said, shaking her head in disbelief.

They finally reached the entrance to her ship's landing pad, and Weiss hurriedly swiped her key card through the gate control, barely pausing as she then ran towards her boarding ramp. “Come on!” she shouted to the other two.

They both followed her up the ramp, but Yang hesitated near the top while Weiss entered the code to open the airlock. “As nice as this is to hide in, I'm not really planning on going off world anytime soon.”

“I am, and once I leave I'm pretty sure they'll hunt you down and kill you for helping me,” Weiss said. “The White Fang are monsters. They won't care that you just met me.”

“Why are the White Fang after you?” Yang demanded. “What the hell did you do to piss them off?”

“She didn't tell you?” the other woman asked. “This is Weiss _Schnee_. Heiress to the company that has done more to enslave and exploit the Faunus than anyone else in the galaxy.”

“ _Ex-_ heiress,” Weiss bit out as she stepped into the open airlock. “Your sister is onboard.”

“Then she needs to get _off_ ,” Yang said, still hesitating at the door. “I-”

A bullet then slammed first into the hull of the ship nearby, and then several more. The White Fang had obviously gotten past the smoke grenade and were finally in position to shoot at them. Yang half turned, and then screamed in pain as a hex patterned light flickered around her body. She stumbled back into the airlock, her human arm bleeding from the bicep. “Why is it always the arms?!”

“Yang!” Weiss shouted, rushing over and trying to support her. The other woman pushed the button to close the airlock door and begin the quick decontamination cycle before the inner airlock door would open. She then stepped over and began checking the arm, pulling out some basic medical supplies from inside of her coat as she did.

“Hold still,” she said.

“There's a med bay on the ship,” Weiss said, her words fast and a little panicked.

“Chill Weiss-cream,” Yang said.

“Wh-what did you call me?”

“I've been shot before, and way worse than this,” Yang said dismissively. “Hell, I'm down an arm! My AURA absorbed most of the oomph before it gave out, so it barely got through my skin.”

“The bone stopped it and doesn't seem broken,” Blake said, carefully extracting the bullet with a pair of tweezers. She then slapped a Dermagel Patch on the injury, making Yang hiss, but otherwise not react despite the obvious pain she was in. “There, nothing serious.”

A bullet being pulled out of someone's arm seemed serious to her. Why did this stranger have so many medical supplies in her coat, and why would she be so adept at using them? “Are you a doctor?”

“No,” she said flatly.

“Thanks anyway!” Yang said. “I was expecting to be shot with you around, but I thought it'd be Cupid's arrow through the heart.”

“I can arrange that… with another bullet,” the woman said, her voice bored.

“Feisty,” Yang said with a grin.

The inner airlock finally cycled open, revealing a worried looking Ruby holding a red rifle. “Yang!”

“Ruby!” she shouted back. “You're okay!”

“Where did you get a rifle?!” Weiss shouted.

“I had it folded up in my bag,” Ruby said. “I just finished fixing the forcefield modulator, and I went to the bridge 'cause the ship seemed really cool and I wasn't gonna touch anything but I wanted to see what it looked like. But I saw you running and people shooting at you and the smoke bomb, so I grabbed my gun and was gonna come help but the airlock wouldn't open, since it was already cycling, and-”

“So the ship is ready to go?” Weiss interrupted.

“Yup!” Ruby said. “I mean, it really needs some time in dry dock to fix… lots of stuff. Like, so much stuff. But Patch doesn't have the parts or tools to do all that, uh, kind of stuff. It'll at least make it a bit farther now, though.”

“Then come on, we need to launch before the White Fang do,” Weiss said, going to the bridge and activating its iris valve door. “If they get that yacht in the air first we're in trouble.”

“Then let us off,” Yang said. “We're not going into space or wherever.”

“Actually… I, I wanna go!” Ruby said.

“What?”

“I wanna go with her!” Ruby said. “I've always wanted to see the stars, and now's my chance! Weiss said I could be her engineer, and this ship really needs someone keeping it flying. I want to be that someone!”

“You… you really want to go with her?” Yang asked, sounding overwhelmed.

“I do,” Ruby said. “This ship is really cool, and Weiss seems kinda mean when you first meet her-”

“Hey!” Weiss objected.

“-but she's actually really nice, just kinda, you know, grumpy. But not in a bad way! Mostly. Anyway, this is what I want.”

“Oh,” Yang said, biting her lip, before giving Ruby a small smile. “My little sister's getting all grown up.”

“What about you… what was your name?” Weiss asked the other woman.

“Blake,” she said. “I came to the spaceport to see about getting a ride off world, anyway. I'll at least go with you to the next real port.”

“What about you, sis?” Ruby asked, giving Yang a pleading look with wide, glistening eyes. “Are you… are you gonna stay here? Or are you gonna come with me?”

“But… all my stuff is still back home… and my bike,” Yang said.

“But I'm here,” Ruby said.

“Ugh, you're the worst,” Yang groaned. “But at least you're not the _Weiss-_ t. I guess I can't leave you alone with all the weirdos out there, anyway.”

Ruby squealed and hopped onto Yang, the two hugging tightly until finally Weiss cleared her throat. “That's touching and everything, but… we're all going to be killed by the White Fang if we don't _start moving_!”

“Right, then let's go!” Yang said, dropping Ruby.

The four entered the bridge, Weiss sitting in her captain's chair, and Ruby at the station to Weiss' right, where she pressed a few buttons until her screens were showing engine outputs, reactor levels, Dust field readings, and dozens of other things that she needed to keep an eye on as engineer. She would have to leave the bridge to do anything major about them, but she could at least control what was going on from there.

“Yang, sit there,” Weiss said, pointing at one of the two chairs at the front of the bridge, the one on the left. While all the stations could be heavily customized as they were primarily just special sets of computer consoles, the pilot's seat actually had a few manual controls as well. Yang sat down, staring at the levers and the yoke, which was currently resting partially inside of the station in front of her, allowing easy access to the computer keyboard and touchscreens. Blake sat down in the seat beside her without asking, examining the astrogation controls but not touching anything.

“Alright, let's go,” Weiss said. For a long moment nothing happened, and Weiss looked over at the White Fang outside. One of them had retrieved a plasma torch and was getting it ready, no doubt about to cut their way onto the ship. “We don't have much longer.”

“Engines are ready for take off,” Ruby said.

“Yang,” Weiss said.

“What?”

“Lift us off,” Weiss ordered.

Yang turned in her chair. “Me?”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “Yes, you. Ruby said you were a capable pilot.”

Weiss noticed Ruby was extremely focused on her readouts… too focused perhaps. “I'm a hover bike pilot. I've never flown a starship before.”

“ _What?!”_ Weiss shouted, turning to glare at Ruby who hunched down in her seat, her red hood covering her head. “Ruby!”

“You know how to fly!” Ruby objected after a moment, not looking at anyone. “I know you've been sneaking off to the simulators for years.”

“I've never _actually_ flown a ship,” Yang said.

“But you know how!” Ruby said. “You were training to go find your mom, right? I mean, she's not on Patch, so you wanted to know how to fly a ship.”

“Ruby…” Yang trailed off, looking pained.

“Now's your chance! You said you wanted to come with us, right? Well… well now you can. You can actually go into space and find out what happened to your mom!”

“I…”

Weiss noticed that the White Fang had finally gotten the plasma torch working, and in a few moments they were going to be cutting away at _Myrtenaster_. The hull was tough, but the tool was designed to cut through ship hulls and similar ultra hard materials. “Can we save the family drama for when we have more time? Can you fly the ship or not? My only piloting experience is also theoretical, so if you're confident then _get us out of here_!”

“Alright, alright, ice queen,” Yang said, examining the controls.

“That's 'captain' to you,” Weiss grumbled.

“Ice captain,” Yang agreed as she pushed a few buttons. Her displays changed, and the yoke and throttle came free. With a smirk she grabbed the controls, hit another button, and pulled back. “Hold onto your butts!”

With a shudder the ship lifted off of the ground, its nose rising first until they were effectively lying on their backs. Weiss frantically grabbed her restraints, her previous pilot at no point making her want to use the five point safety harness, but they were barely in the air and Yang was already making her fear for her life.

Yang then pulled the throttle lever, and with a shout of excitement they blasted off, slamming them back into their seats as they rocketed towards escape velocity.


	9. Escape

Even after nearly being thrown from her chair, even with the knowledge that she really should've put her things away instead of leaving them sitting in the engine room where they'd probably been tossed around the room and damaged something, even though she didn't get to tell her father and uncle goodbye, or get a chance to pack, finally leaving Patch's atmosphere was one of the greatest moments of her life. It was everything she'd ever dreamed of, and nothing, not even the terrorists trying to kill them, could spoil the moment.

The stars were so clear, with the brightly lit gas giant Tract clearly visible through the glass half dome of the bridge. Tract's enormous rings were beautiful even from the ground, but from space they were even more majestic.

Once they were fully in space Yang pressed a few buttons and the manual controls retracted into place, halting the ship's acceleration. Suddenly the force pressing them into their seats cut off, and they began to float in place. Ruby giggled at suddenly being in zero gravity. Space travel was everything she had ever dreamed of and more.

“Why isn't the artificial gravity working?” Weiss asked, her sharp voice pulling Ruby from her distraction.

“Oh!” Ruby said, reaching over and hitting a few buttons on her computer console. The ship _should've_ had gravity automatically, as the specialized Dust field generators in the deck plating had been active even with the ship sitting on the landing pad. She fumbled around for a few long moments before finally finding what she was looking for. With a few button presses gravity was restored and they all fell back into their seats.

“Thank you,” Weiss said. “What happened?”

“Uh, we kinda flew up _really_ fast,” Ruby said. “Yang must've ignored the safety warnings, 'cause all the forcefields kinda switched to emergency inertial dampener mode to keep us from getting squished into paste.”

“ _Squished into paste_ ,” Weiss growled.

“What, we needed to make a getaway, right?” Yang said.

“What good is a 'getaway' going to do if we're dead!”

“It worked,” Yang said dismissively. She pressed a few more buttons, humming to herself as the ship jolted a little and began accelerating again, although nothing like before. “Plus it was more fun, right sis?”

“I'm kinda with Weiss on this one,” Ruby said.

“What!?”

“Thank you!” Weiss said. “I see who got the sense in your family.”

“This ship needs some repairs, and the inertial dampeners overloaded taking off that way,” Ruby explained. “We were really close to having them fail, and I don't think we would've lived through that.”

“Why does this ship have engines that powerful?” Blake asked, breaking her silence.

“I dunno, but they're really cool!” Ruby gushed. “They're even able to go into a supercharged mode, but I'd wanna be in the engine room to check them before they did 'cause it could go really wrong! But this ship is way faster than it's 'sposed to be.”

“My grandfather upgraded it on a number of occasions,” Weiss said proudly. “He owned it before the SDC even existed, and it was his prowess as a free trader that allowed him to grow a small dust mine into the largest mega corporation in known space.”

“I thought it was the slave labor working the mines and other immoral business practices that made the SDC so powerful,” Blake said blandly.

“That… that's… my grandfather was a good man!” Weiss shouted.

“So were the people that died mining the SDC's dust,” Blake countered.

“Uh, guys,” Yang said.

“What?!” both of the arguing women snapped.

“I don't think we're going to be alone up here much longer,” she said. “Can someone check the sensors? And where's the wormhole out of here?”

Ruby stood and moved beside Weiss, who was still strapped into the captain's chair. She pulled out some kind of oversizedScroll from a slot on the side of her chair, quickly flipping through screens and pressing virtual buttons until she was found the sensor readings. Ruby wasn't sure exactly what she was seeing, but apparently Weiss was from the way she tensed.

“The White Fang's yacht has launched,” she said. “It's without a doubt fast and likely to be armed. We need to get to the wormhole immediately.”

“Right, but where is it?” Yang asked.

“There are only two in the Patch system,” Blake said. She obviously wasn't as comfortable with the outdated computer system as Weiss was, but she was able to operate the astrogation station well enough to show Yang the options.

“We're going to Vale,” Weiss said. “The Beta wormhole should take us in the proper direction.”

“Beta wormhole, got it,” Yang said, before frowning. “Crap, we've been going the wrong way.”

A spaceship couldn't just turn like a hover bike and fly in a different direction. The momentum it built up traveling as fast as it did made maneuvering a lengthy affair, and going in the complete opposite direction would require a long, wide arc, or simply spinning in place and burning the engines until they bled away all of their velocity before starting to move in the desired direction.

Weiss had been studying the sensor readings carefully. “The yacht is fast. Not as fast as this ship, but they'll easily be able to intercept us if we try to go the other way.”

“The Alpha wormhole isn't in the best direction, either,” Blake said. “It's not as far out of our way, but we'd have to make a long looping path, and they can cut the angle and intercept us before we reach it.”

“Is this thing armed?” Yang asked.

Weiss frowned. “Slightly, but it's all out of date. I doubt the weapons could stop that yacht if it's prepared to fight. And I'm not completely certain they actually work, anymore.”

“It's a White Fang ship,” Blake said. “It'll be ready to fight.”

“What do we do?” Ruby asked.

“You said the ship can get more 'oomph', right?” Yang mused.

“Yeah,” Ruby agreed. “I can get it to work… maybe. But probably not for long. I don't think the engines have been tuned for this kinda stuff in a long time. They might burn out, or at least have to turn off before we can use them again.”

“How fast?” Blake asked. “We'd have to have a lot of speed to keep them from getting a good angle on us on the way to Alpha.”

“I wasn't thinking about Alpha,” Yang said, looking up at the nearby gas giant.

“What do you mean?” Weiss asked.

Yang started typing, bringing up projections as she laid in a course. The manual controls could be useful when traveling at low speed, such as in an atmosphere, or when navigating difficult conditions, like a dense debris field or unplotted asteroid belt. However, the amount of thrust the plasma drives generated was great enough that, without air or gravity to slow them down, the ship could accelerate at a remarkable pace, making piloting between worlds more a matter of mathematics than reactions.

Weiss unbuckled her safety harness and went to look over Yang's shoulder, and Ruby was quick to follow, curious to see what was going on. Yang seemed pretty comfortable with the plotter, laying out the basic path she wanted to take and having the ship's computers swiftly crunch the numbers to figure out the exact course.

“Are you crazy?” Weiss demanded after a moment, her eyes wide as she stared at the projected path on the screen.

Instead of simply flying to one of the wormholes, the route Yang was designing took them so close to Tract that they would actually pass through its outer atmosphere, using its powerful gravity to slingshot them around towards the Beta wormhole. The course would be much faster than turning around, shaving off many hours of travel time, and giving them a chance to avoid the White Fang's yacht. It was crazy but brilliant, and Ruby was grinning at the thought of doing it.

“That's so cool!” Ruby shouted, making Weiss jump before glaring at her.

“It is _not_ cool!” Weiss countered. “That's incredibly dangerous! Can the ship even take the strain of that course? The g-forces are going to be intense!”

Ruby frowned, thinking about what she knew about the ship. “It'll be a little rough… I think it should hold together, but we might need to spend some time even earlier getting fixed up. It might do some damage…”

“And where would we get repairs done?” Weiss asked. “I know we're still many hops from Vale, and we're going to be chased by the White Fang the whole way!”

Blake reached over and hit a few buttons. She was getting more comfortable with the dated software as she worked, and after a few minutes she'd brought up a map of the known galaxy, quickly zooming in on the region they were in. With a few more button presses she added bright green lines representing all of the navigable wormholes so that they could plan where to go.

“That's Vale,” she said, pointing to a world. Unlike Patch, which only had two wormholes, Vale had more than a dozen. Between that, and the beautiful, easily habitable world, it had become a prosperous trading hub, and eventually the most populous planet on the rimward frontier. Ruby couldn't wait to see it herself! If only she'd paid more attention in school and could remember anything about it…

“We're a lot of jumps away,” Blake said, pointing at Patch, with its two wormholes and tiny colony indicator. There were many paths that they could take through the intervening worlds, as the wormholes formed a complex web of connections between the stars. Ruby felt a little lost looking at it, but Weiss quickly pointed out a series of systems that wove between their current position and Vale.

“This was my planned route,” she said.

“It's a bit out of the way, isn't it?” Blake commented. “Wouldn't it have been faster to take one of the major trade routes from Atlas?”

“Well… there were advantages to taking the scenic route,” Weiss said awkwardly. Ruby looked over at her, brow furrowing at how… _shifty_ the captain suddenly looked. Before she had a chance to call her out on it Weiss continued. “Regardless, we're here now, and I had intended to take that route. Unfortunately, I don't believe that that's still an option; if we need repairs we'll have to stop at a larger colony and see about doing so.”

“Not necessarily,” Blake said after a moments thought. “We can stop here.”

The system she pointed to didn't have a colony indicator, although it had a different symbol that Ruby had to wrack her brains for a few long moments to recognize. Finally she remembered it as indicating an independent space station. “What's that?”

“Beacon,” Blake said. “It's one of the largest independent space stations in existence. It's not on the big trade arteries between the core worlds and Vale, but the system has almost two dozen wormholes, and lot of frontier trade flows through it. They refuse to let Navy ships dock, but they won't let pirates or anyone else harass merchant ships in their system. The White Fang won't be able to openly attack us, and we can lay low among all of the traffic long enough to get repaired and resupplied before going to Vale.”

“So you want to come all the way to Vale?” Weiss asked, making Ruby jump as she realized that she hadn't thought about why Blake was with them.

“I...” Blake trailed off. “Vale is as good a place to go as any. Why? Did you not want me on board?”

Weiss studied her for a moment. “The ship needs more hands to run smoothly. If you're willing to work then you're welcome aboard.”

“Will there be a paycheck?” Yang asked, half turning in her chair and crossing her arms. “If I'm gonna be your pilot I expect to get paid.”

“Oh yeah!” Ruby gasped. “I forgot to ask for money!”

Yang gave her an incredulous look. “You were just going to repair her ship and be her engineer for _free?_ ”

“No!” Ruby defended herself, although given how cool the old ship was, if she had enough money sitting in her piggy bank she probably would. “I just… forgot to ask.”

Weiss cleared her throat. “I'm sure we can work out some kind of equitable arrangement when we reach Vale.”

“You mean when you can just kick us off if you don't like our salary demands?” Blake said, narrowing her eyes and staring down the captain.

“What is your problem?” Weiss demanded, crossing her arms defensively.

“Working without pay is slavery,” Blake said. “Your family has a lot of experience with that.”

Weiss looked absolutely furious. “How dare you!”

“Hey!” Ruby interrupted. She cringed a little at the glares both women leveled at her but found enough courage to keep speaking. “Um… shouldn't we worry more about the White Fang ship?”

“You're right,” Weiss said. “Those awful degenerates… we can discuss money after we're not on the brink of death. Maybe nothing is more important than money to you, but I'd rather not die.”

“That's not… whatever,” Blake said with a scowl, turning back to her console and ignoring them.

Ruby saw that Yang had gone back to plotting a course while Blake and Weiss had been arguing. “Is that where we're flying?”

“For now,” Yang said, pressing a few more buttons. “I still need to get better nav data, but it'll be close to this.”

The ship shuddered as it changed course, beginning to fly towards Tract. “What do you mean 'for now?!” Weiss demanded. “You can't take a course just to change it in a few minutes!”

“Sure I can,” Yang said. “I'm gonna refine our course when we get more info. Trust me, it'll work fine.”

“How am I supposed to trust you,” Weiss said. “You've never actually piloted a ship before!”

Yang looked a little sheepish. “Well… okay. I guess it's kinda hard to trust me. But I'm sure this will work.”

“Shouldn't we call dad, then?” Ruby said.

“Yup, that's the plan,” Yang said. “Come on over here, Rubs. I'm sure I can make a call from here… somehow.”

Weiss rolled her eyes and reached past Yang to hit a few buttons, bringing up a comms interface on Yang's main monitor. She returned to her captain's chair, sitting down with an annoyed huff as Yang entered their father's comm code.

He looked the same as ever when he appeared on his screen, his blonde hair a little disheveled, and stubble just starting to grow on his handsome face. “What is it? Did you end up in jail again, Yang?”

“No!” Yang objected. “I've never been in _jail_.”

“Only because I've bailed you out,” he grumbled.

“That's not what this is about!” Yang shouted. “Look… you finished that survey of Tract, didn't you?”

“Yeah,” he said suspiciously. “Why?”

“Do you think you could send it to me?”

“What for?” he asked, although he was already hitting buttons to make it happen anyway. “And what's wrong with the comms? There's a delay or something.”

“Yeah, it's gonna get longer,” Yang said, biting her lip a little nervously. “Uh… you know how Ruby kept talking about going into space?”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. “She always wanted to be like her mom… and she wasn't the only one that wanted to leave Patch.”

“Well… this whole thing happened, and well…”

“What is it?”

Seeing her taking so long to tell him Ruby decided to jump in. “Hey dad!”

“Ruby!” he said, smiling. “I didn't know you were there, too. Think you can fix the comms?”

“Uh… actually, that's, um, that's distance,” Ruby said. “You know, speed of light limits and stuff.”

“Speed of… where are you two?”

“Ruby kinda… joined a ship's crew,” Yang said after a long pause. “I'm going with her.”

“ _WHAT?!_ ”

“Yeah… we're in space right now,” Yang said.

“This is… I knew you would leave someday, but… you didn't even come get your things… or say goodbye.”

“We're saying bye now!” Ruby said. “Um… bye? And I love you so much! I just… the captain needed an engineer, and she's kinda nice and pretty and I think we're gonna be really good friends, so I wanted to come… and then these criminals attacked and now we're getting chased-”

“Criminals?!” he interrupted. “ _CHASED!”_

Yang winced. “Yeah… that's kinda why I wanted that info. I'm gonna plot a course so they can't follow us.”

“What… how?”

Yang smirked. “You surveyed every little rock around Tract, right? Well, I'm gonna plot a course to whip through its atmosphere, then sling shot us super fast through its rings. If they try to follow us they won't know where all the rocks and ice that make up the rings are, and they'll get torn to pieces. They'll either have to slow down, or take a much wider path on their slingshot. Either way we'll be through the wormhole before they can even think about catching up.”

“That's crazy,” he said, before sighing. “But it's crazy enough to work. That's something your mother would've come up with.”

Yang stiffened but didn't say anything. Ruby looked at her with concern, knowing how sore of a spot her mother was for her. After a moment their dad gave them a sad but proud smile. “Saying goodbye is hard, but… I know you're not my little girls anymore. You're gonna do great out there. Just… don't forget about your old man, okay?”

“Never!” Ruby said. “We'll send you messages all the time, and next time we're near here we'll visit, okay?”

He chuckled. “Probably not _too_ many messages. Those cost a lot of money to send, but I appreciate the thought. You'll be safe, won't you?”

“Of course,” Yang said. “It's not like we'll get chased by criminals _every_ day.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better,” he said sarcastically. “Did you get the data?”

“Yeah,” Yang said. “I've got the computer crunching it, but I'll have to work out a final course in a minute. And the sensors are showing their ship has left the atmosphere, so I kinda need to get on that…”

“Alright,” he said. “I'll be sure to tell your uncle that you guys are okay.”

“Take care of my bike for me, too,” Yang said. “I left it parked on the far side of the space port.”

“I will,” he said. “I love you girls.”

“I love you too, dad,” Ruby sniffled.

He gave them one last smile and hung up. After a moment's hesitation Yang switched to her course plotter and began to work on the final details while Ruby wiped her eyes and tried to get herself under control. It was harder than she'd thought it would be, saying goodbye. Suddenly it wasn't just an abstract adventure she was going on, but something life changing.

“Are you hungry… thirsty?” Weiss offered awkwardly.

Ruby turned to look at her. The woman looked very uncomfortable, avoiding eye contact and rubbing one arm as she glanced at her from the corner of her eye. It was obvious that she didn't know what to do about Ruby being upset about leaving home, but she was doing her best to make her feel better anyway. It gave her a warm feeling, and she gave Weiss a shaky smile. “Yeah… some hot chocolate sounds good.”


	10. To New Stars

Weiss always acted confident, which made her fumbling attempts to make hot chocolate adorable. Of course, Ruby wasn't going to say that. That was the sort of thing that would get her yelled at, and one thing Weiss _was_ really good at was yelling. She liked Weiss being friendly _way_ more.

As much as she was enjoying watching, she really did want hot chocolate, and she really didn't want to force herself to choke down whatever abomination Weiss came up with on her own. Besides, the ship only had so much hot chocolate mix, and she'd need more later.

“Here, let me help,” Ruby said.

Weiss tensed. “I- I can do it.”

“Of course,” Ruby said supportively. She hated lying, but sometimes little white lies helped people not feel bad. “But you're the captain. You shouldn't have to make me hot chocolate.”

Weiss hesitated, before looking away and speaking quietly. “I might be the captain, but I… I don't want to be some distant person my crew can't be… friends with.”

Ruby grinned and gently urged Weiss out of the way. Okay, she was adorable in general, but Ruby still knew better than to say that. “We are friends! Besties even!”

“I don't know about _besties_ ,” Weiss mumbled. “We just met. Besides, that sound absolutely ridiculous.”

Ruby cheerfully ignored her, however, as she pulled out the hot chocolate supplies and began getting her drink ready. “Soon to be besties. And besties help besties! So I'm gonna help you help me make my drink. That way there's twice as much helping!”

Weiss' brow wrinkled. “But… that doesn't make any sense. If you help me when I'm supposed to be helping you, then you just end up doing it yourself. Which means no one helped anyone.”

“Nope!” Ruby objected cheerfully. “It means twice as much helping happened. Do you want one, too?”

“No thank you,” Weiss said, wrinkling her nose. “I prefer coffee.”

A few minutes later they were sitting at the table sipping their drinks. The quiet moment felt nice, although knowing that they were being chased by terrorists planning to kill them kinda put a damper on the atmosphere. Ruby tried not to think about that, but it was really hard to think about anything else. “Uh… so what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

Ruby gestured vaguely. “You know, you and Yang and, uh, Blake getting chased onto the ship.”

“Oh… well, I managed to find Yang, but she got into a brawl at that dive you sent me to,” Weiss huffed, crossing her arms.

Ruby sunk down a little in her seat. “Sorry… Yang does that sometimes. She doesn't start fights, though! Usually.”

“I… I suppose that was the case,” Weiss said after a moment. “She was gambling with some ruffians and they didn't appreciate losing money and tried to reclaim it from her. I had been speaking with her and was caught up in the resulting mess, so she offered me a ride so that I wouldn't get into trouble with the local authorities. We were almost back to the ship when we saw an entire mob of those degenerate terrorists huddled around their yacht. Unfortunately they saw me as well.”

“How'd you get away?”

“We ran,” Weiss said dryly. “Blake apparently had a smoke grenade for some reason, which bought some time, and my AURA held up to the strain, but Yang's broke. Fortunately Blake knew enough about medicine to patch her arm up, but she really should be resting it.”

“Wait, she was shot!?” Ruby shouted.

“Yes, that's what I just said,” Weiss huffed. “Blake seemed to know what she was doing, and she didn't seem very worried about it. I suppose her AURA slowed it down some before it broke entirely. It was probably ship ammo anyway…”

“Are you okay?” Ruby asked.

Weiss stretched, and then flinched a little. “I'm going to be sore for a few days, but I have the best AURA system available. The White Fang were using ordinary pistols, so it didn't have any trouble protecting me.”

“That's good,” Ruby said, starting to stand. “But are you sure you're okay? A lot of oomph can get through the force field, and you can get hurt really bad without knowing it!”

“You should worry about the engines, not me,” Weiss scolded. “I'll be fine.”

Ruby's' gaze flicked briefly to her cool eye scar. She was _really_ curious if the doctors managed to save her eye, or if it was a natural looking, top of the line Atlesian cybernetic replacement. Yang's arm was a state of the art military version, but while it super duper cool it didn't look at all like a real arm. Still, she knew how sensitive injuries like that could be, and just thinking about Yang's filled Ruby with guilt, making her look away before she was caught staring.

Hopping to her feet, Ruby slurped down the last of her hot chocolate. “Thanks for the drink! But I'd better go work on those engines. Wouldn't want to have them fail and us go flying into some big rock in Tract's rings and go BOOM! You know?”

For a moment Ruby thought she saw disappointment on Weiss' face as she prepared to leave, but that hardly seemed possible. Weiss might not know how to cook, and she might be grumpy and adorable, but there was no way she would actually be disappointed about her leaving, right? Ruby was… about as cool as a potato. Weiss was like a princess crossed with a starship captain… how cool was that? She even had a super awesome high tech sword! Which was even cooler!

“Of course,” Weiss said. “Make sure you return to the bridge before we get close to Tract. This maneuver your sister has planned is extremely reckless, and the bridge is the safest place if something goes wrong.”

Ruby snapped off a sloppy salute. “You got it!”

With that she quickly cleaned her mug and then opened the iris valve to the cargo hold and dashed down the catwalk, eager to see the engine room. She really hoped that it wasn't too much of a mess, as she hadn't expected Yang to show up and fly like crazy before she had a chance to put her things away.

Ruby still wasn't used to the lower gravity, and so she somehow managed to trip over her own feet, flying through the air and bouncing on the hard metal catwalk several times. The lower gravity also meant that it didn't hurt as bad as a normal fall, but that didn't help her pride. Fortunately she was all alone, so no one saw it. She was especially glad that Weiss didn't…

Ruby blushed as she climbed to her feet, pausing to look around just in case. She was definitely alone, and she began to consider why Weiss seeing her fall would bother her so much. Yang would be unrelenting with her teasing, but she didn't think that Weiss would act that way. No, it wasn't because of what she would do; Ruby just didn't want to look stupid in front of Weiss.

Even besides how cool and beautiful and interesting Weiss was, she was also the first new friend Ruby'd made in a while. Yang was the social butterfly, but Ruby was usually too awkward to get that far, and normally she'd be too anxious to keep in contact with people she did make a positive connection with. Unless Ruby wanted to hide in the engine room forever she'd see Weiss everyday, which meant that they had plenty of opportunities to be friends. Or _more_ than friends…

Blushing again, Ruby sighed in relief when she hit the button to open the iris valve door to the engine room. Shaking her head at being so awkward that she was super happy to be away from her own thoughts, Ruby looked around, groaning in annoyance at the amount of disruption her things had caused. While nothing looked damaged, Yang's launch had scattered her stuff _everywhere_.

Once she'd corralled her tools and the spare parts she'd had out, she then carefully examined the engines and the boost system that would probably be needed for the trip around Tract. She lost track of time, tuning and tweaking parts, until she yelped and almost jumped out of her skin when a voice came over the ship's comm. “Ruby?”

Scrambling over to the comm unit next to the door she hit a button, rolling her eyes when she accidentally opened the iris valve again. A closer examination revealed the comm answer button which she sheepishly hit. “Yes?”

“We're making our approach to Tract, now,” Weiss said, her voice sounding tinny through the antique comm system. “You should secure the engine room and come to the bridge.”

“Be there in a jiffy!” Ruby said, before releasing the button.

Ten minutes later she had everything put away, and her bag sealed and stuffed into a small locker. If they survived whatever crazy plan Yang had hatched up she wouldn't have to worry about losing anything. After taking one more look around the engine room she nodded decisively and began to jog towards the front of the ship.

Tract completely dominated the view from the bridge, and she gaped in awe for a minute as she took in the swirling atmosphere of the enormous gas giant. It was so beautiful, and it was just the first of many planets she would come close to during her time in space.

“Everything ready, sis?” Yang asked.

“Yup… I think,” Ruby said.

Weiss turned in her chair to glare at her. “You… _think_?”

Ruby looked down and fiddled with her fingers nervously. “I think everything's working, but… I mean, this ship could use some time in a dry dock to fix it up. I've done what I can, but…”

“Don't bully my sister,” Yang said.

“I'm not bullying anyone,” Weiss huffed, crossing her arms. “I think it's a reasonable question to ask _my_ engineer if _my_ ship is going to survive _your_ insane plan.”

“I didn't hear you objecting to the plan earlier,” Yang said.

“I did,” Weiss said. “Repeatedly. You just couldn't hear it over your ego.”

“You also couldn't think of any alternative plans,” Blake said blandly.

Weiss huffed and looked at Ruby. “You should sit down and fasten your safety harness. I doubt the inertial dampeners are rated for the insanity that's going to happen.”

“How long?” Ruby asked as she sat down, trying to figure out how to put on her safety harness. There was definitely a panel that could open on the top of the chair, but how did she get the restraints out of it?

“We're about twelve minutes from Tract's atmosphere,” Yang said. “A little after that we should go squirting out its rings like a watermelon seed. Then it's just a five hour run to the wormhole… assuming nothing goes wrong.”

“Five hours?” Ruby asked, taken aback.

“Space is big,” Blake said blandly. “We're going to be thrown away from the gas giant at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, but it's still a long way to go to get anywhere.”

Ruby frowned thoughtfully while still trying to figure out how to secure her safety harness. Space really was big. Even with how powerful the ship's plasma drives were it would take many days to go from one end of the star system to the other, even accelerating the entire way. Without the vast network of naturally occurring wormholes connecting so many systems interstellar travel would basically be impossible.

Weiss huffed and unbuckled her restraints, walking quickly over to Ruby and batting her hands away. “Just sit still, you dolt.”

In a matter of moments Weiss had somehow gotten the five point safety harness out of the compartments of the chair and was adjusting it to fit her tightly. Ruby blushed at the close proximity, with Weiss having to touch her more than a little to get everything tightened down. “Thanks, Weiss.”

Weiss looked into her eyes for a moment, before looking back at the buckle and blushing. “Of- of course.”

“You might want to sit down too, princess,” Yang drawled. “We're getting close.”

Weiss stamped her foot. “Don't call me that!”

Still, despite her anger she did as Yang said and sat down, getting back into her safety harness. Ruby spent a few moments examining the engineering outputs she still had up on her console, but fortunately everything looked okay. If nothing went wrong, and her dad's plotting of Tract was correct, _and_ Yang's route worked, _and_ the terrorists didn't catch them, they'd be fine.

“What happened to the White Fang?” Ruby asked curiously.

“They're about as fast as we are, so they've just been following us the whole time,” Yang said casually. “Looks like they either want us alive or don't have any long range guns, since they haven't just blasted us out of space.”

“Oh,” Ruby mumbled, pressing a few buttons to change one of her screens to show the White Fang ship. Someone had apparently focused in one of the rear cameras on it, the zoomed in view showing the ship following them. According to the sensors the ship was hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, which was a long range for any weapon small enough to put on a yacht, aside from missiles.

“Alright, hang onto your asses!” Yang crowed. “Ruby, the best plot included a burn with the engine boost on. That good?”

“It's good,” Ruby said, trying to seem more confident than she was.

Yang grinned. “Good! We'll probably live then.”

“That's not guaranteed?!” Weiss screeched.

Before Yang could reply the ship shook, a powerful vibration running through the hull as the engines entered overdrive. They were soon all pressed back into their seats as the inertial compensation struggled to keep up, making Yang laugh merrily at the sensations. Ruby was grinning as well, happy that the engines hadn't exploded (yet) and feeling the thrill as they accelerated ever faster towards the gas giant.

The planet already filled their front view, the dense ochre and gold storms that made up its atmosphere even more gorgeous with the naked eye than in any of the thousands of images her father had worked on over the years. They continued to get closer and closer, until the ship began to shake for an entirely different reason.

“What is that sound!?” Weiss shouted.

The sound grew louder and louder. It was a shrieking, wailing sound like nothing Ruby had heard before, but she was able to guess immediately. “We're in Tract's atmosphere now. We're hearing the storm outside, and the air, err… not air stuff hitting the ship.”

As the minutes crawled by the ship heated up, the friction of flying through the gas giant's thin outer atmosphere warming them rapidly. The ship's vibrations increased, so much so that things around the room began to rattle loudly. Sweat dripped down Ruby's brow, both from the heat and the fear, and she was pressed deeper and deeper into her seat as they used the gravity of the gas giant to sling shot them around, changing their course impossibly fast and accelerating them further.

They were pressed fully back into their seats, and Ruby saw red warnings starting to pop up on her screen, but she couldn't lean forward to read the details. It was like taking off had been, but much worse, until finally, just as she began to fear that they would be torn to pieces by the upper atmosphere of the gas giant, shaken apart by the gravity, or blown to pieces by the engines over-stressing, the view turned black and full of stars as they flew out of the gas giant's atmosphere once again.

“We made it!” Yang crowed.

In front of them was the beautiful rings of Tract, and she barely had time to appreciate their splendor as they approached them incredibly fast. They were a belt of dense rocks and ice, and Ruby murmured a desperate prayer to anything listening under her breath as they flew directly into it at incredible speed.

Fortunately their father had done his survey well, as the ship shot through a carefully plotted gap in the ring, passing through with less incidence that flying through Tract's atmosphere. After the slingshot they had changed course completely, leaving them flying towards the beta wormhole with nothing but empty space ahead of them, and a pursuer who had an impossible path to follow.

The engines quieted, and they began to cruise with a normal acceleration once again. It was only then, when they were no longer being pressed back into their seats so firmly, that Ruby realized what one of the warning lights was. “Uh… looks like we lost gravity again.”

“Is that gonna happen every time we do something fun?” Yang asked.

“ _Fun_?!” Weiss objected loudly. “You call that _fun_!?”

“You don't?” Yang asked incredulously.

Weiss scoffed and decided to ignore her, focusing on Ruby instead. “Can you get it back on?”

“Hopefully,” Ruby said. “This'll be a long trip, otherwise.”

Ruby worked at her console, really hoping that she could get it functional without having to leave her seat. She'd never been in zero gravity before getting on the ship, and she didn't want to have to try to fix something while floating around. She wasn't entirely certain how she'd even _reach_ the system without gravity.

Fortunately she was able to get it working again, breathing a sigh of relief as they fell back down into their seats. “Got it. The inertial dampener and gravity systems really need an overhaul. I dunno how often I can keep fixing it like this before something big burns out.”

“Is anything else damaged?” Weiss asked.

Ruby bit her lip pulling up various system diagnostics. “Um… define 'damaged'.”

Weiss unbuckled her safety harness and walked up behind her, reading the screens over her shoulder. Ruby stiffened at her close proximity, swallowing thickly before trying to focus on her work again. Fortunately it was interesting, so she was able to mostly ignore Weiss standing so close.

“Is anything critical damaged?” Weiss asked.

“It doesn't look like it,” Ruby said. “I'm gonna be busy fixing stuff, though. Like, for days. And we really need to visit somewhere we can get bigger repairs done.”

“What's the condition of the pursuer?” Weiss asked, turning to Blake as she said it.

The woman was working on her own console, and answered after a few moments. “They followed us into Tract. We'll know how they plan to deal with the rings shortly.”

Ruby continued the work she could without leaving the bridge. Nothing was so immediately critical that she had to rush off to fix it, and she really wanted to know if they had to keep worrying about getting killed. She really wasn't fond of that part of being on Weiss's ship.

It wasn't long before Blake breathed a sigh of relief. “They broke off pursuit. They followed us into Tract but knew they didn't know the gaps in the rings, so they flew wide. With the speed they picked up from the slingshot it'll be a long time before the curve back around to reach the wormhole. We got away from them.”


	11. Settling In

Ruby always thought that crew cabins on board space ships would be small. She'd read plenty of stories where people joining a ship's crew were disappointed about how much room they had, or how few items they could take with them. She wasn't sure whether she'd been living in a tiny room compared to those story protagonists, or if Weiss's ship had big cabins, but either way, it was a little bigger than her room back home had been.

There was a nice bed in the corner, which after some investigating she discovered actually had straps retracted into the wall. She'd blushed when she'd imagined some uses for them, but she knew they were actually to help if the ship lost gravity for an extended period. Beside the bed was a desk with a computer console, and a chair with the same kind of retracted five point harness the bridge chairs had. Some time messing with it had taught her how to operate the restraints, so she wouldn't look stupid in front of Weiss again. Of course, failing with them made Weiss fuss over her…

Pushing that thought aside, she spent a moment gazing out of the small round porthole on the wall in the gap between the bed and desk. Outside the window was nothing but blackness and the solid light of endless stars, and she couldn't stop grinning every time she saw it. Space. She was in space!

The wall opposite the porthole had glass, or really, polycarbonate, fronted shelves, designed to hold books or small objects (currently she'd stuck some of her personal tools, her stuffed wolf, and the couple of books she'd had in her bag on the shelves), with the front designed to keep anything in during sharp maneuvers, rough take offs, zero gravity, or, with Yang at the helm, all three at once.

That wall also had a couple of stairs up to the door from the cabin, as the room was slightly below the level of the main ship's corridor for some reason. The remaining wall, the one opposite her bed, had a good sized closet, which was empty aside from her bag and rifle. There was probably an armory on the ship where she should store Crescent Rose, but she really didn't want to be separated from her baby. She'd spent countless hours customizing and shooting her folding sniper rifle, and keeping it close at hand was comforting.

Beside the closet was her bathroom. It was pretty small, but not being filled with her sister's endless beauty products made it feel like it was bigger than it really was. It had a small sink with a mirror, a toilet, a tiny clothing washer, and a cramped shower which actually used water, instead of the more common sonic cleaners other ships used. Weiss' ship might be older, but it certainly had some nice amenities.

After checking out her room one last time Ruby collapsed back onto her bed, sighing happily. She was in space! Had been in space, actually, as she'd spent her first night in her bed already. She'd spent the previous day after their crazy slingshot around Tract fixing up the ship, and had actually missed watching her first jump through a wormhole because she'd been elbow deep in a bundle of wiring trying to track down a short. It was only when Yang had dragged her to bed that she'd finally gone to sleep, and she'd been up and working again in the morning.

The end result was a Ruby who was as tired as she was excited, but her little afternoon nap had dealt with that. Yang would be annoyed at having this much work to do, but Ruby loved it. She really wished that they could spend some time in dry dock though, as she bet there were a ton of systems that it wasn't safe to work on in flight, or which would require time in a space suit to reach, or both, that needed an overhaul.

She was about to go work again when there came a beep at her door. She frowned, not sure what it was, only to hear a metallic knocking a moment later. Scurrying over to it, she grinned happily when she hit the open button to reveal her sister. “Yang!”

“Hey Rubadoob,” Yang said, grinning. Her hair was wet, and her clothing looked clean, although she was still wearing the same thing as yesterday. Of course, Ruby only had one change of clothes, and neither of them had access to shampoo or anything. Ruby was less bothered by it, but she doubted that Yang would be fine without any possessions for long. They probably needed to stop at Beacon for that more than to make repairs.

“Whatcha doin'?” Ruby asked.

Yang shook her head. “Getting you. What have you eaten today?”

“I had cereal,” Ruby said.

Yang crossed her arms. “And what about lunch.”

“Uh… cereal again?”

“Ruby,” Yang sighed. “You can't just eat cereal all the time.”

“But… but it's part of a balanced breakfast!”

“Yeah, _part_ of a balanced _breakfast_ ,” Yang emphasized. “As in, not just cereal, and not for lunch.”

Ruby pouted. “Well… cookies would be nice.”

Yang rolled her eyes. “Or a nice Yang-cooked dinner. Come on, I've already herded Blake-y and the Weisscicle into the mess.”

Ruby's eyes lit up. “Okay, Yang-cooking is good.”

“I caught our captain eating some slices of un-toasted bread for lunch, so apparently she's even more helpless than you are,” Yang said. “Looks like the pilot is gonna have to double as ship's cook if we're gonna avoid scurvy or rations.”

“What about Blake?”

Yang shrugged. “I dunno what she ate before now, but I doubt it was much. Nothing seems missing, and she was pretty happy to go to the mess when I knocked on her door.”

When they reached the mess the atmosphere was a bit tense. Blake and Weiss weren't saying a word, or even looking at each other as they sat stiffly at the table. Despite the awkwardness Ruby was happy to be there, as the food smelled delicious. From the looks of things Yang had made spaghetti, which while simple was also simply delicious, and a good start for their trip.

“Alright, everyone's here, help yourselves,” Yang said, strolling over to the stove and adding a huge pile of noodles to her plate. She'd even made some small garlic rolls, grabbing a couple of those as well.

“That's a lot of carbohydrates,” Weiss said cautiously.

Yang rolled her eyes. “You didn't stock up on Patch, so we're not exactly drowning in fresh meat and veggies. Some canned tomato, some smoked sausage, some dried herbs, some dried pasta, and you've got dinner with a _Yang_.”

“Really?” Weiss asked skeptically. “With a _Yang?_ ”

“ _Weiss_ wrong with that?” Yang countered to loud groans. “Alright, alright, don't _Blake_ me for being me.”

“Yang...” Ruby whimpered.

“Alright, I guess those didn't go over well,” Yang sighed, before smirking. “You don't have to _Ruby_ it in.”

“Boo!” Ruby yelled, throwing one of the garlic rolls at her sister.

Yang snatched it out of the air and added it to her plate. “Thanks, sis!”

A few minutes later all four were sitting around the table with plates full of food. Yang and Ruby were happily chowing down, while Blake ate more calmly, and Weiss was still poking at her plate nervously. The awkwardness of a few minutes ago had dissipated although no one was really saying anything.

“What, don't like spaghetti, princess?” Yang asked. She said it like she was joking, but Ruby could see the concern in her eyes. Yang might tease people, but if there was some reason that Weiss couldn't eat the meal she would make her something else, and make sure that she didn't serve her this again.

“No, no, I...” Weiss trailed off. “I've simply never had this before. Thank you for cooking for us.”

“Well, it looked like if I didn't you'd all subsist on rations and whatever could be eaten raw,” Yang said. “I guess I'm in charge of cooking from now on.”

Weiss finally took a bite, smiling slightly. “I suppose, so. It will be nice having fresh food to eat.”

“Great!” Yang said. “So how much of a raise is cooking worth? 'Cause at the moment I'm not getting paid at all.”

Weiss set down her fork. Ruby frowned, worried at how little she'd eaten before she'd become distracted by the conversation, but hopefully she'd eat more in a little bit. “I already assured you, I intend to pay you all fair market rates for your jobs.”

“Well, I'm a pilot and Rubles is an engineer, so I guess those have normal wages,” Yang said dubiously.

“They do,” Weiss confirmed with a nod. “Standard wages, in addition to fully covered room and board, standard medical care, and dental, for pilots is ten thousand Lien a month. Engineers normally receive eight thousand.”

Ruby's jaw dropped, and Yang's eyes nearly popped out of her head. That was a _lot_ of money. So, so much money. Even with regular work Ruby was lucky to bring home a third of that, and Yang often made even less. “That's so much money!”

“Working on a small freighter is dangerous,” Blake said. “Pirates, ship failures, strange diseases… all while far from civilization. Especially working out here on the frontier.”

“Yes,” Weiss said with a nod. “Working on a free trader like this isn't for cowards. There's also no work with more opportunities; you can see the galaxy, visiting worlds people have never heard of, all while getting a steady paycheck.”

“While you get rich selling a cargo hold full of Dust,” Blake said.

Weiss' eyes narrowed. “You looked at the cargo?”

“Of course,” Blake said shamelessly. “All quarried from Schnee mines. Extracted with slave labor and now making you and the SDC a hefty profit from their suffering.”

“What is your problem with me?!” Weiss snapped. “I never did anything to you, but you've been treating me like a criminal this whole time.”

“Your family _are_ criminals,” Blake said darkly. “This ship, the paycheck you're offering, that cargo hold of Dust… all bought with blood money.”

“This ship was my grandfather's!” Weiss shouted, slamming her fist on the table. Ruby bit her lip, before reaching over and putting a hand over her's. Weiss flinched, obviously shocked at the contact, but after looking at her for a moment she took a deep breath and calmed down. “My grandfather struck a Dust vein, mined it by hand, and used the money to buy this ship. He then started the SDC, paying his employees fair wages, working hard for everything he had.”

“The SDC-” Blake started, only to be cut off by Weiss.

“I know! I know my father has done awful things,” Weiss said. “Do you think I'm stupid? Even besides his part in the commoditization of the Faunus, his other business practices have dragged my family name into disrepute. But my grandfather was not my father. Myself and my sister are not my father!”

“You have a load of Schnee Dust in the back of your family ship,” Blake said. “Dust that wouldn't have been mined without your family's company. With a ship your company owns. Your first crew were all SDC employees.”

Weiss scowl deepened. “I'm not part of the SDC. This ship, my cargo… we have nothing to do with the company! Besides, why should I justify myself to _you_. Yang is my pilot, and Ruby is my engineer. You're just a tagalong with no respect for boundaries.”

“Okay, why don't we all calm down a little,” Yang said loudly. “Look, obviously things are… kinda tense here. Me and Ruby aren't really experts on this whole SDC thing. But yelling at each other isn't really gonna help anything.”

Things stayed quiet and tense as they all ate some more, until finally Ruby cleared her throat, desperate enough to risk another fight if someone would just say _something_. “So… you left the SDC?”

“Yes,” Weiss said. “I had a disagreement with my father, and decided to start my own trading company. I own this ship, and I arranged a shipment of Dust before I set out.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Yang asked.

“What does what mean?”

“'Arranged' a shipment of Dust,” Yang said.

Weiss looked flustered. “I ensured that a shipment of Dust was on my ship before I set out.”

“This much Dust… you could buy and sell several star ships for that much money,” Blake said. “If you could afford this much Dust why are you flying in a relic like this?”

“It was my grandfather's ship,” Weiss said. “I wanted to use this one. It gave me a chance to start my own life just like he did.”

“With a cargo hold full of blood money?” Blake asked.

“Stop saying that!” Weiss snapped. “You have no idea what you're talking about! Besides, using Faunus like vat grown robots is illegal on every civilized world, and even the SDC doesn't have enough clout to get away with doing it!”

“ _Openly_ , maybe,” Blake said. “But just a few years ago they were, and they haven't paid even a dime to all the _people_ they created and then mistreated. And they still pay terrible wages to their miners, and dump them the moment they become sick or injured in the dangerous conditions. Your father is wanted for crimes against humanity on several worlds, and not just for his actions against the Faunus. And quietly? Along the fringes? Nothing has changes where no one's looking.”

“And how is any of this my fault?” Weiss demanded. She gestured around at the old crew mess, which was badly in need of a paint job and modernization. “Do you see the SDC headquarters? Did I suddenly become CEO last night and no one told me? You have as much control over the company as I do! I don't blame you for whatever crimes your parents did, why are you holding me responsible for mine!”

The room was silent for a moment. “Okay, no one is blaming you for what your family did,” Yang said after a long moment. “If we did that, then I'd have to be thrown in jail, too. So why don't we all just calm down and stop yelling at each other. Please. Don't make me be the voice of reason, here.”

“You're right,” Blake said, her expression pinched. “Maybe you couldn't do much about the plight of the Faunus. And if you left the company, you certainly can't now. But every Lien you have, every Lien you pay us and every Lien worth of Dust in that cargo hold came from the SDC. It's all tainted from its source.”

Weiss gritted her teeth. “I know my father has done terrible things, but he didn't start the SDC. And what, did you expect me to strip naked and run away through the streets of Atlas? I've been disowned, isn't that good enough?”

“Wait, you were disowned?!” Ruby interrupted.

Weiss looked away and nodded once, sharply. “Yes. My father and I haven't ever really seen eye to eye. A few months ago this came to a head, and he kicked me out of the family.”

“That's terrible,” Yang said. “I'm sorry to hear that.”

“So where did the Dust come from?” Blake said slowly. “If you were disowned, I doubt he happily gave you a cargo hold full of Dust and a ship to transport it with.”

“The ship is mine,” Weiss said. “My grandfather would've wanted me to have it, and I made sure that the title was in my name. The Dust… well… my father disowned me hours before he revoked my credentials in the company.”

“You stole the Dust?!” Yang said. “Go ice queen! Didn't know you had it in you!”

“It's not _stolen_ ,” Weiss said. “I had the legal authority to transfer the Dust when I did it. Technically.”

“Is that why you've chosen to fly through this winding path to Vale instead of taking one of the trade routes?” Blake asked.

Weiss sniffed disdainfully. “I had a right to transfer the Dust. That doesn't mean my father sees things the same way, or that his influence over the Navy wouldn't make things difficult if they caught me with the Dust still in my cargo hold.”

After a long moment of silence Blake smirked. “You know what? You aren't so bad after all Schnee… no, Weiss.”

“You were furious when you thought my cargo was normal, but now that you know it has certain… dubious legal history you are fine it?” Weiss demanded. “Not only do the White Fang hate me, but the SDC and Navy are also looking for me!”

Blake reached up, and untied off her bow, leaving them all staring in stunned silence as she revealed the cat ears on top of her head. She looked like she was ready for anything, body tensed in case she had to dive for cover or run for her life.

She wasn't prepared for Ruby's squeal. “They're so cute!”

“You- you're a Faunus?” Weiss said a moment later.

Blake looked in her the eye. “I am. Do you have a problem with that?”

Weiss opened and closed her mouth a few times, reminding Ruby of a gold fish looking for food. She then recovered, her expression becoming a carefully blank mask. “Most of my experience with Faunus has been the White Fang or other disgruntled radicals. Stealing Dust, blowing up SDC buildings, murdering executives and family… all making my father furious, which made for a _very_. _Difficult. Childhood_. But…”

Weiss took a deep breath to recover her slipping composure, and Ruby found herself unable to move, no matter how badly she wanted to comfort her. “I know the difference between the White Fang and the Faunus. I may be… wary around Faunus, but in my life every Faunus I encountered may very well have wanted to kill me. But… I don't care that you're a Faunus. I don't blame all the Faunus for what _some_ of them have done.”

Blake studied her, a conflicted expression on her face, before she finally nodded. Yang clapped and grinned. “Okay! So, now that we've had that out… are you gonna accept a paycheck, Blake-y? You really helped me plan the route we're taking, and you knew a ton about how to avoid us getting detected.”

“Huh?” Ruby asked.

Yang threw her a smirk. “Well, after we jumped through the wormhole, instead of just flying straight to the next one we took kind of a round about course, flying close to some planets along the way. You know, take the scenic route, so we won't be noticed as easy. Plus, we turned off our transponder and active sensors. Finding us will be like looking for a needle in all the haystacks on Patch… from Tract.”

“Cool,” Ruby said.

“You did an acceptable job,” Weiss said with a nod. “The standard rate for an astrogator or sensor operator is six thousand Lien a month.”

“That's standard?” Blake asked, raising an eyebrow. “Not less than they're being paid because I'm a Faunus?”

Weiss somehow turned even paler, then flushed red. “How- how dare you! These are standard salaries based upon the difficulty and responsibility of the position! Your position is the standard pay for a skilled crew member, but without an expensive specialty like the pilot or engineer! I just said-”

“Okay,” Blake said, raising her hands in surrender. “Okay. I accept. I'm not sure how long I'll stay, but… I'll give it a try. I don't have anywhere else to go, so… I'll work for you, Weiss… as long as you're just Weiss.”

Ruby grinned. “That's a full crew! So now we need celebratory cookies! Come on Yang!”

Weiss groaned and covered her face with her hands. “What have I gotten myself into?”


	12. Arrival

Weiss tapped her finger restlessly on the arm of the captain's chair as she alternated between looking at her special Scroll and out the large window that made up the front and top of the bridge. It had been almost two weeks since they'd left Patch, and they were finally close to Beacon. One more jump through a wormhole and they would be in the correct system, only a few hours away from their destination.

The two weeks with her new crew had been nothing like the month and a half she'd spent with her old one. The old crew might have called her 'captain' and nodded when she gave orders, but even before they'd mutinied it had been obvious that they'd had no respect for her. They wanted to do their jobs, and she was an impediment to getting things done the way they wanted. They treated her like the boss's daughter, which they'd been forced to accept on board because she wanted to play captain. She'd never been one of them, and she never would be, and by the time it had all fallen apart she'd begun to wonder if they were right about her.

Her new crew were very different. Sure, they called her Weiss, and they bickered and teased her and treated her like she wasn't any different from them, but underneath the ribbing she actually felt respected. It was strange to get used to, as she had never had friends who treated her like this, nor had she ever commanded much real respect outside what her name and money gave her. She was actually having a hard time believing it. Was their respect all in her head? The previous mutiny had left her doubting herself.

She looked at Blake and Yang, the blonde cracking jokes while the Faunus pretended to ignore her. Despite the casualness, they did their jobs well, Yang keeping an eye on the helm while Blake watched the sensors as they approached the wormhole. Part of her felt like telling them to be more professional, but she was partially afraid that they wouldn't, and partially afraid that they would. One would mean that their respect for her _was_ all in her head, and the other meant that they wouldn't feel friendly around her anymore, and she had come to crave that sense of camaraderie after a lifetime of loneliness.

The iris valve door to the bridge hissed open, and Weiss half turned to offer Ruby a small smile, which was instantly returned with a goofy grin. While Weiss still wasn't sure where she stood with Yang and Blake, her relationship with Ruby was much more solid. The engineer had truly become the best friend she'd ever had despite not knowing her long, although she refused to admit something so embarrassing aloud.

“Hey, Weiss!” Ruby said cheerfully.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Yang asked.

Ruby blushed slightly. “I was gonna say hi to you, too! And Blake. You were just talking to each other so much I didn't get a chance yet!”

“Uh huh,” Yang said, before wiping a fake tear. “My little sis, all grown up and no time for me anymore. Just chasing her rich girlfri-”

“Shut up!” Ruby shouted, hopping onto Yang's back in an attempt to cover her mouth. Before long Yang managed to reverse their position, wrapping her flesh arm around Ruby to hold her in place while her cybernetic hand tickled her side. “Stop, stop!”

“We're coming up on the wormhole now,” Blake said blandly.

“Fine,” Yang said, letting Ruby slump to the floor, where she pouted up at her sister. “You should grab a seat if you want a good view.”

“I was trying to,” Ruby grumbled as she climbed to her feet. “Meanie.”

“What was that?” Yang asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did you say tickle me again, please?”

“No!” Ruby objected, scrambling away so fast that she stumbled over her own feet and would've hit the deck if she hadn't already reached her chair, letting her use that to steady herself. “I didn't say anything!”

“Uh huh,” Yang hummed, obviously unconvinced, before she turned her attention back to the helm to make the final preparations for the jump through the wormhole.

Weiss shook her head, doing her best not to smile. She was still a little horrified at how undignified the two were, but part of her was actually jealous that they could be so carefree and… happy. Still, it was moments like that that made her wonder how she could still find Ruby attractive when she was so _childish_. Then she would say something sweet and look at her with her big silver eyes and-

“I love wormholes!” Ruby cheered. “I can't get over how cool they are!”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “We can't see them from the outside, and they don't last very long.”

“Still, they're probably the coolest thing ever,” Ruby said. “I can't get enough of them. I wish we could just go back and forth through them all day long!”

“They're just a method of travel,” Weiss said.

“Don't listen to her,” Blake said. “She's never missed a single wormhole jump since Patch.”

Weiss fought a blush. “I- I'm the captain. It's my job to make sure that we're on course and that nothing goes wrong when we jump!”

“Right,” Yang drawled. “Gotta supervise the windows. You never know what important captainly things you might see out there while you're being very unimpressed by the wormholes.”

“Excuse you!” Weiss shouted.

“We're here,” Blake said. “Yang?”

“On it,” Yang said, pressing a couple of buttons. “Hold onto your butts, ladies. We're jumping in three, two-”

A moment later the ship shuddered as the Dust field modulator activated, the frequencies the forcefield around the ship reached acting as a key to open the latent, naturally occurring wormhole. It was still invisible to the naked eye, but a moment later they fell into the strange not-space in the cracks of reality. Whatever was outside the window was beyond any human understanding, besides perhaps the most brilliant theoretical physicists. For a few long heartbeats the four stared out at an endless void full of impossible colors, indescribable shapes, and the absence of normal geometries or coherent forms, until finally they fell out the other side, with the stars changed from their multi lightyear jump.

“So cool,” Ruby whispered.

Weiss privately agreed, but she refused to admit it, clearing her throat and focusing on Blake. “Sensors?”

The Faunus pressed a number of buttons, until finally she nodded. “We're at Beacon. It should take about four hours to reach docking position and speed with it.”

Weiss pulled up the sensor data onto her captain's Scroll, and was impressed despite herself at the number of ships in the system. It was nothing compared to Atlas, but it was far, far more than she'd seen since leaving the core worlds. With a few more button presses the ship's visual sensors began to focus in on Beacon itself, until finally a good video feed appeared on her scroll.

Most space stations were a large core habitat, which then grew additional modules outward in all directions. From the gorgeous, snowflake-like symmetrical patterns of Atlesian stations, to the practical, armored segments of Naval bases, or the ugly hodgepodge of random attachments commonly seen by poorer civilian installations, normal stations all followed the same pattern.

Beacon was something else entirely. A good sized asteroid that had been split in two by some cosmic event, before one half had been hollowed out and filled with decks, with domes decorating the surface like giant blisters. She had heard about the occasional base built _on_ an asteroid, often as a supply depot for mining operations, but nothing on this scale.

“It was an old Dust mine, one of the largest finds in the frontier,” Blake said suddenly, having obviously guessed what she was looking at. “It was mostly played out by the collapse of the Stellar Alliance, but enough remained to attract a host of independent prospectors. They made enough money to build permanent homes, which eventually grew into the largest independent station in known space.”

“Is there still Dust?” Weiss asked.

“Not that I've heard,” Blake said.

“What are they still sticking around for?” Yang asked. “That place's gotta cost a fortune to keep running, and there's a ton of ships here.”

“They're in such a good strategic position, with so many wormholes, and situated as they are right in the middle of the frontier,” Weiss said. “It's big enough to serve as a port of call for fleets of merchant ships, and it's been here long enough for trade routes to be built with it in mind. Even with the high cost of running a place like this, if all of these ships pay docking fees regularly they'd be able to afford it.”

“Right,” Blake said. “You do have money for docking fees, don't you? You might be able to barter a berth with Dust, but I doubt they'd give you a good deal.”

“I can afford it,” Weiss said with a grimace, trying not to think about how little money she had left in her accounts. She'd spent most of her efforts getting a shipload of Dust ready, while her father had apparently first focused on shutting out her access to the family bank accounts. It left her cash poor, as she'd never thought to hide assets before she'd been disowned. A good amount of the money she did have she acquired by selling her collection of jewelry to pawn shops before fleeing Atlas.

“What about some cash advance on our salaries?” Yang said.

“I'm not made of money you know,” Weiss said.

“You're a Schnee,” Blake pointed out.

Weiss scoffed. “I can give you a little, but I'm going to have to pay docking fees on Vale before I can sell my cargo.”

“I've been wearing the same underwear every day for two weeks,” Yang said flatly.

“That's disgusting,” Weiss said, making a face.

“Hey, we've been washing them everyday, or at least I have,” Yang said. “I really want fresh ones though, you know? And something else to wear? Maybe some shampoo? Do you have any idea how long it's gonna take me to get my locks back to full lustrousness?”

“Alright, alright,” Weiss said, raising her hands. “I'll give you what I can. Just stop complaining and I won't even take it out of your paychecks.”

All four of them stayed on the bridge, making small talk as they made their approach. They'd been traveling quite fast, and so they spent the time decelerating steadily, the rear of their ship pointed towards the station, leaving them seeing nothing but stars out the window. Only at the last moment did Yang turn them around, letting them see the station with their naked eyes. Every section that wasn't the raw rock that it had been carved out of glowed with different neon colored lights, making it appear both garish and lively.

“Whoa,” Ruby gasped. “That's amazing.”

“We've got a message coming in from Beacon,” Blake said. “Looks automated.”

“Show me,” Weiss said, making a few touch gestures on her Scroll to bring up the video Blake was forwarding.

Ruby moved to look over her shoulder as the video started, her warm presence making Weiss blush slightly, although fortunately no one was looking. On the screen was a strict looking blonde woman wearing glasses. She was quite beautiful in a stern way, with looks that could have been anywhere between thirty and seventy years of age, depending on how much healthcare and anti-agathics she could afford.

“Hello, and welcome to Beacon,” the woman said, her enunciation sharp and refined. “I am Glynda Goodwitch, Deputy Administrator. Before you dock I wish to cover a few ground rules all visitors must be aware of. First, please do not bring firearms aboard Beacon. We are a space station, and over penetration could expose a large amount of our guests to hard vacuum. If you are caught with a firearm that has not been discharged it will be confiscated and you will face stiff fines. If you actually fire it, then you will be ejected from the closest airlock without a space suit.

“Second, you are responsible for your personal safety at all times. The docks and trading floor are protected by Beacon Security, hired with your docking fees, and all theft or violence is prohibited in those locations. Beyond those areas, however, you are on your own. If you wish to file a police report about anything that happens within the rest of the station, please do not bother wasting your time. You may, however, offer bounties at any bounty office.

“Third, conflict between ships in our space is prohibited. Anyone attempting to attack or commit piracy against any of our guests will be destroyed with extreme prejudice. We have enough firepower to repel even a Naval task force, and we have made deals with all of the pirate syndicates operating in this region of space. Do not try us.

“Finally, this station is off limits to Naval ships and personnel. Do not attempt to land here, even on undercover assignment. You will be ejected from the closest airlock if you are discovered, and I will be forced to send a message of apology to Admiral Ironwood again. Just save both of us the trouble and don't do it.

“Follow those four rules and we'll get along just fine. I hope that you enjoy your stay at Beacon, and be prepared to pay your docking fees up front, or your ship will be scrapped to pay for them.”

The recording ended, and Weiss glanced up to see that Yang and Blake had been watching it on their own comms screens. Yang turned and looked over at Weiss and her sister, a smirk on her face. “Well, that was a thing.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow. “You seem undisturbed.”

Yang shrugged. “I mean, don't get me wrong, the whole casual 'we'll kick you out an airlock' thing is messed up, but I don't have anything to worry about.”

“Be careful, sis,” Ruby said. “This isn't the Qrow Bar. If something goes wrong nobody's gonna be around to help.”

“You're the one who needs to be careful,” Yang said. “I trust you with a gun to take care of yourself, but you're gonna have to go hand to hand Rubes. I don't need to remind you how well that goes.”

Weiss looked back and forth between the sisters, from Yang's worried look to the concern starting to overwhelm Ruby's former excitement about visiting somewhere far from home. Weiss was worried herself; Beacon appeared to be a den of scum, and she normally would stay on the ship and avoid having anything to do with degenerates like them. For some reason she didn't want to analyze too closely she really didn't want Ruby to be disappointed, and so she spoke up. “Don't worry about it. I'll stay with her.”

“Really?” Ruby asked, before puffing out her cheeks. “I mean, you don't have to. I can take care of myself!”

Yang smirked. “I guess you did a pretty good job with that chair, princess. Can you swing your sword, though?”

“Of course!” Weiss said. “I'm far more skilled with a sword than in some brutish bar brawl.”

“Great!” Yang said. “We'll be landed in a minute. You _can_ pay the docking fees, right?”

“Of course,” Weiss said, although she winced when she glanced at the message that had accompanied the video. Each day they docked would eat deeply into her cash reserves. If they had to stay for very long she would need to sell one of her crates of dust to cover it, and she doubted that she'd get as much money here as she would at Vale.

When Yang was busy piloting them in Weiss noticed that Ruby was frowning. “Hey,” she said softly.

“What?” Ruby grumbled.

“I know what it's like to have an older sister fussing over you,” Weiss murmured. “Besides, I'm worried about going out there, myself. I'd feel more comfortable if I wasn't alone.”

Ruby studied her carefully, something about the probing look making Weiss want to squirm in her seat, although her strict etiquette lessons kept her from showing it. “Really? You're not just saying that?”

Weiss shrugged. “I don't know how much of a fighter you are, but I know this place will be dangerous. If we didn't need supplies I wouldn't even consider stopping here. Since we are… I'd rather not be alone with a bunch of criminals.”

It was fascinating watching the asteroid come closer, until it filled the entire front view of the ship. Weiss could hear her pilot chatting with Beacon's control, until finally the reached their berth. Since they didn't plan to unload cargo it was a simple spot on the backside of the asteroid, where a metal boom reached out and snagged onto them, making the ship shudder slightly. A moment later a long, thin tube extended, latching onto the ship's main airlock, and then Yang shut down the engines, leaving the ship humming much more quietly.

“Alright!” Yang shouted, spinning in her chair with a grin. “Welcome to Beacon!”

“Good job,” Weiss said with a nod. It wasn't easy to precision maneuver a ship into a dock like this, with richer stations like those in Atlas using Dust powered force fields to pull ships into place instead. Yang managing it flawlessly spoke volumes about how seriously she had taken her self training.

“So, about that money?” Yang said.

Weiss rolled her eyes, but grabbed her personal scroll. In a matter of minutes she'd transferred a few hundred Lien to each of them. “That should tide you over for a few weeks until we reach Vale. You'll have a full paycheck to buy things with then.”

“Alright!” Yang said. “Let's get shopping! Come on Blake-y, Rubes.”

“Hold on a minute,” Weiss grumbled. “I need to grab my sword, and I'll need to be the first off to pay our docking fees.”

A few minutes later all four were gathered at the air lock, and with the boarding tube connected it only took a moment for it to cycle open. Weiss was surprised at the smell when it did, having expected Beacon to stink like a combination of a Dust mine, too much body odor, and long stale air. Instead it smelled… fresh.

“Come on,” Yang said, pushing past her when she hesitated, stepping into the boarding tube. “Ah!”

Artificial gravity was created by Dust generated forcefields in the ceiling and floor plates of the ship. The boarding tube lacked the expensive plating, and instead offered ladder-like handholds spaced along the sides. Yang, suddenly finding herself in zero gravity, flailed about for a moment, until she gave up and began to float in a slow tumble.

Weiss couldn't contain herself, laughing hysterically at the sight. “Watch… watch that first step!'

Ruby giggled, and even the normally stoic Blake laughed at Yang's slow motion tumble. “Yeah, laugh it up,” she grumbled.

“Sure thing, sis!” Ruby said, before laughing louder.

Finally Blake took pity on her, hopping into the boarding tube and grabbing a handhold near Yang. Once she was secured she reached over and hauled Yang in, where she hurriedly fumbled for her own handholds. “Thanks, Blake-y!”

“Come on,” Weiss said, still smiling brightly.

Ruby bit her lip. “Uh… I've never…”

“Oh,” Weiss said. At home she'd had had a zero gravity training chamber, and she'd spent quite a bit of time in it as a child, but it was quite expensive and certainly out of reach for the people on Patch. “Come on… just take my hand and follow my lead.”

Ruby's hand was soft, with just enough calluses to show that she worked hard for a living. Weiss blushed, but decided to focus on what to do. “Just… hop into the tube beside me, and I'll make sure we reach the other side, okay?”

“Okay,” Ruby said with a shy smile and a blush of her own. “I trust you.”

With that Weiss took a deep breath and hopped into the tube, Ruby following. She made it look like she was doing little more than taking a step, but in reality she'd made sure to jump with enough momentum to carry them through the tube at a reasonable speed. They soon passed by Yang, who was awkwardly struggling to use the handholds like she was climbing a ladder, and an amused Blake who was keeping an eye on her.

“Bye Yang!” Ruby called.

“Blake, could you close the airlock?” Weiss called.

“Sure thing,” Blake said, easily hopping away from the wall and sailing back to the airlock, hitting the external door locking button, before kicking off and returning to a pouting Yang, who was still struggling to deal with weightlessness.

“We're almost to the end,” Weiss said quietly. “Just keep ahold of my hand and be ready for gravity to come back, okay?”

“Okay,” Ruby said, her face almost as red as the cloak trailing behind her.

Weiss made the transition without any difficulty, landing easily on the metal grating the moment she entered Beacon. The floor plating was generating standard gravity, and the move was no different from the many times she'd left the zero gravity room back home. Ruby stumbled a bit, but with Weiss' help she managed to avoid falling, and once she found her balance again she looked around, wide eyed in excitement.

“Welcome to Beacon,” Weiss said, smiling at the wonder in her friend's eyes.


	13. Bazaar

Ruby didn't know where to look first. Actually, she knew where she wanted to look, and that was _everywhere_. Sure, Beacon wasn't another planet, but it was as close as you could get to one without actually being on one, and in some ways it was even cooler. She'd lived on a planet her entire life, but this was the first time she'd ever been on a space station!

They were in the port area, which unlike the landing pads of a planetary port, was simply a long, wide hallway full of the iris valves to boarding tubes. From what she saw through the window it looked as though there were several port areas, and from the signs it appeared that they were in Port F. Despite being one of a number of ports there were many people around, from security keeping an eye on everyone, to administrators looking to deal with captains, to countless people heading to and from their ships on business.

Ruby wondered what the lives of the travelers were like. Where did those people come from? Where were they going? How many people were like them, free spirited merchants looking to see the stars and carve out their fortunes? Well, Ruby wasn't so much interested in 'fortunes', but Weiss obviously was, and Yang wouldn't mind being rich.

Actually, thinking about the others reminded Ruby that she was still holding hands with Weiss from the trip. She was holding her left hand, which had a line of callouses from her sword showing just how hard she had worked on her skills. Ruby found that impressive, but after a moment of hesitation forced herself to let go of the hand. No matter how nice it felt holding hands with Weiss, Yang would make fun of them when she arrived, and they weren't dating or anything, so holding hands might seem a little weird.

She wasn't sure if the brief flash of disappointment on Weiss's face was real or imagined. “Why don't you wait here for your sister. I'll go deal with our docking fees and see about using their dry dock.”

“Alright,” Ruby said. “Good luck!”

Weiss snorted slightly, the sound a little shocking from someone so refined, before she raised her chin and strode off like she owned Beacon. Ruby felt a little sorry for any administrator who thought they could cheat her captain.

After a few minutes Yang finally came close enough not to have to shout to talk. “Come on, Yang! What's taking so long?”

Yang had worked up a bit of a sweat pulling herself along the handholds. “Not everyone had someone carry us, sis.”

“I offered,” Blake said mildly. She had been using the handholds to leapfrog past Yang, hanging around her in case she needed help, but not climbing them like a ladder the way that Yang had been doing.

“I'm fine,” Yang grumbled. “I can do it. Just… people weren't meant to fly without an engine.”

“Is she still not finished?” Weiss asked as she walked back to them, crossing her arms in exasperation. “I've already arranged for our stay.”

“I'm coming,” Yang muttered. “Chill out, Weiss Cream.”

“Ugh,” Weiss groaned, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the nickname.

Ruby decided to intervene before they could start arguing for real. She hated when her sister and Weiss fought. “So! Did, uh, um… did you manage to get us into the dry dock?”

Weiss made a face. “Unfortunately not. I signed up to be notified when a berth was available, but if it takes too long we might need to leave instead. It's expensive staying here.”

“Well, nothing _ha_ _s_ to be overhauled right away,” Ruby said. “We're, what, a month from Vale?”

“A little more than that the way we're going,” Blake said as she glided the last of the way to the space station and landed just as easily as Weiss had. “There aren't any good stops along the route to make repairs though, so if something might need to be done we probably should before we leave… or we could take the direct route and be there in a little over a week.”

Ruby frowned thoughtfully. “Uh… well. I don't think anything _has_ to be fixed in a dry dock. I mean, I want to do some maintenance on the engines while they're shut down here in port, but I can do that from the engine room. Probably. I'd only have to get a dry dock if there's something big I have to do for them. Or any other system. But I don't think so?”

Yang finally reached the station, frowning dubiously at them from the handhold she was clinging to. From Ruby's perspective it looked like she was hanging onto the left wall of the tube, and she looked like she didn't know how to reenter gravity. Before any of them could offer help Yang launched herself forward, trying to turn in midair as she did. She failed, however, and ended up hitting the metal deck with a loud thump.

Weiss burst into laughter, the joy surprisingly infectious, or maybe Yang's fall was simply funny on its own. Either way not only the three of them, but various people in the area all began laughing. Ruby felt bad about it, but Yang had always enjoyed embarrassing her, so it was hard to feel _too_ bad about laughing at her.

“Okay, okay,” Yang grumbled, climbing to her feet. “Laugh it up why don't you.”

“O-okay,” Weiss managed between peals of laughter.

Yang rolled her eyes, cheeks bright red as she reached over and hit the door close button for the boarding tube. “I'm gonna get a drink.”

“Sorry,” Ruby said, trying to stop laughing. “Sorry, Yang.”

Weiss stopped as well. “I didn't think our laughter would bother you so much. But I guess it… had an _impact_.”

Ruby snorted but otherwise kept a straight face, while Weiss began to loudly laugh at her own joke. Yang just rolled her eyes, smiling slightly at that. “Wow. I'm glad I entertain you so much, princess.”

“It's good to have talents,” Blake said dryly. “You certainly left landing on your feet to me.”

“Hey I can't help it,” Yang said. “I've fallen for you, kitty cat.”

They all groaned in response, except for Weiss, who snorted then looked slightly guilty. Shaking her head Ruby spoke up. “Come on, sis, let's go. You wanted more clothes, right?”

“Fine,” Yang pouted. “Nobody appreciates genius in its own time.”

“I don't see how that's an issue for you,” Weiss snarked.

Yang stuck her tongue out at Weiss, making Ruby giggle again. “Alright, let's get clothes out of the way first, then I'm gonna check out the nightlife.”

Ruby shrugged. She'd spent a lot of time in the Qrow Bar, but that was just because it was her uncle's, and her sister was there. She didn't like alcohol, and she wasn't big about being around people, so bars weren't her thing. “I need to find some parts for the ship.”

“Boo, boring,” Yang said. “Come on sis, we're on a space station! Famous for being rough and rowdy! Don't you have some secret vices you want to try out?”

“No,” Ruby said with a frown.

Weiss smiled at her. “I think that's commendable. Drinking and partying are wasteful.”

Ruby blushed, grinning back at Weiss. She wasn't sure if she should actually feel flattered at her boss praising her dislike of socializing, but it made her happy anyway.

“Jeez, you're both sticks in the mud,” Yang said. “No wonder you've been drooling all over each other.”

“Wh-what!?” Weiss yelped, blushing fiercely and staring at Yang with wide eyes.

“Okay, so clothes, then Blake-y and I have fun while the nerds go look at ship parts and try to flirt with them,” Yang said.

Ruby jumped onto her sister's back, trying to put her into a chokehold. “Yang!”

Yang casually resisted her feeble attempts, laughing loudly before putting on a fake squeaky voice. “Weiss, Weiss, look at my thermal coupler. Isn't thermal coupling the best.” She then raised her voice higher and badly imitated a formal accent. “That sounds delightful. If I didn't have such a large stick in my derrière I would ask for you to demonstrate… thermal coupling right here, in front of the power inverters.”

“I'm gonna kill you!” Ruby shouted, tightening her grip to no avail.

“Tougher than you've tried sis,” Yang said, reaching back with her prosthetic hand to start ticking her sides.

“No fair,” Ruby cried, before giggling too hard to maintain her grip and letting go in order to escape. “Meanie.”

“And the lesson is, don't laugh at your sister's misfortunes,” Yang said.

“You laugh at my misfortunes all the time,” Ruby pouted. “Remember, when you declared Thursday Rubesday, and started playing pranks on my every week?”

“Yeah, that was the best,” Yang grinned.

The docks soon gave way to a wide open area. Despite being the biggest room Ruby had ever seen it felt cramped, as every square inch seemed to be filled with stalls selling merchandise, or crowds eagerly searching for deals. Everywhere she looked Ruby saw the products of a hundred worlds, including many goods she had never heard of or imagined. It was overwhelming, but at the same time it was exactly the sort of strange, exciting thing she'd been dreaming of ever since she decided to follow her mother's footsteps into space.

“Welcome to the Bazaar,” Blake said, gesturing vaguely at the many merchants hawking their wares.

“It does look pretty bizarre,” Yang said cheerfully.

Blake simply ignored her. “This main room is watched by the station guards. Any thefts or violence will be dealt with harshly. There are many more markets past this one, but they aren't guarded, so you'll need to be careful if you go to them. They often have better deals than this one, though.”

Yang became serious again as she looked at Ruby with concern. “Alright, it looks like we might need to split up a little if we want to find anything. Are you gonna be okay?”

“Don't worry about me,” Ruby said with a smile. “I can take care of myself.”

“Alright, just… be safe, okay?” Yang said.

“I will,” Ruby promised. “You be safe, too.”

“Sure thing Ruberdoodle,” Yang said with a laid back grin. “You seem to know this place, Blake-y. Is there anywhere good to meet up?”

Blake pursed her lips for a moment in thought. “There's a nightclub I've been to not too far off the market. It's safe if you don't cause trouble.”

“Sounds good,” Yang agreed. “What's its name?”

“Junior's,” Blake said.

“Alright, how about we meet up at Junior's when we're all done shopping?” Yang called over her shoulder as she and Blake wandered into crowd. “And don't even think about wimping out! It's our first time in port, so we should all celebrate being a crew together!”

“I thought I was the captain,” Weiss muttered.

Ruby smiled over at her. “Yang's just like that. If it was important she'd listen.”

“I just…” Weiss looked down at her hands. “I'm not sure how much Blake and Yang actually respect me. Sometimes it feels like they do, but…”

“They do,” Ruby said. “If Yang didn't respect you she'd let you know! Before she started doing bounty work and stuff she told her old boss where he could shove his orders and just did what she wanted. She'd do the same if she thought you were a bad captain.”

“Really?” Weiss asked.

“Oh yeah,” Ruby said. “The guy had a bunch of muscle too, and she ended up beating them up so bad he left the planet! He was trying to set himself up as a crime boss or something, but Yang ended up scaring him off. Anyway, I need some clothes. Do you… do you wanna help me look?”

Weiss blushed, the color very obvious against her pale skin. “Alright. I think I see some clothing for sale over there.”

Shopping in the bazaar was strange. It was like some kind of giant flea market, but many of the traders had racks of the same kind of merchandise for sale like any department store would. It was hard to actually find anything she was looking for, but eventually she began to gather a few items she needed. She blushed a little at buying clothing in front of Weiss, and she was very glad that the woman was tactful enough to step away when she was looking at underwear, but before long she had enough toiletries and essentials to feel comfortable for the trip to Vale.

“Oh, you should try this on,” Weiss said, holding up a red skirt. “It would look darling on you.”

“Weiss… I've got enough clothes,” Ruby groaned. “Besides, I'm running out of money… I've already gone through everything you gave me.”

“O-oh,” Weiss said, setting it down and blushing. “I'm sorry. I didn't realize-”

“It's okay,” Ruby said, smiling at how flustered her friend was. “I got everything I need for me. I'm ready to shop for ship parts.”

“Alright,” Weiss said, looking around the bazaar. “Did you happen to see any? What exactly do we need?”

Ruby bit her lip. “I want to trace some of the electrical systems later; I think something's wrong with the power plant. I can't really buy any parts for that until I do, though, and I can't do some of that without shutting stuff we needed down.”

“But you can do it now?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah, I should be able to… I don't think there's anything I'd need a dry dock for,” Ruby said. “Not for checking it all at least. I do need some spare parts for the engines, though. We burned through a bunch of stuff flying through Tract, and I really need to check what's wrong with the gravity and inertial dampener stuff. I think I know a few parts I'll need for that.”

“Alright, let's buy what we know you need and we'll worry about the rest later,” Weiss said.

They wandered around for a little while, looking for ship parts or electronics venders. If the bazaar had any kind of real organization it would be much easier, or if it was less crowded. Ruby had never been too fond of big crowds, although she didn't look quite as stiff as Weiss was. She doubted that the rich former heiress had ever spent much time among the common folk. Still, she didn't complain, and she had seemed to enjoy finding clothes for her to try on, so maybe she was reading too much into it.

Ruby then saw something that made her freeze in place. It was the most beautiful, glorious sight she'd ever come upon in her life.

“Ruby?” Weiss asked. “What is it?”

“Strawberries… I love strawberries,” Ruby drooled.

The stall was dedicated to fresh fruit of all kinds, although where they got so much to sell on a space station without a planet in the area she had no clue. The strawberries were huge, much bigger than the tiny ones that could grow on Patch, and she'd never seen anything so amazing.

“Strawberries?” Weiss asked. “What about them?”

“They're my favorite, but they don't grow well on Patch,” Ruby said, almost dropping the bags of shopping she'd picked up as she fumbled with her scroll. She checked its balance, and deflated, suddenly wishing she hadn't sprung for the fourth blouse. Weiss had just looked so excited about it, and she really wanted to look good for her… friend.

“Never mind,” Ruby said, slipping the scroll away. “I think I see ship parts over there-”

“Wait, I'll get some,” Weiss said, striding over to the stall.

“You don't have to do that,” Ruby said. “Don't you need to save money for docking fees? What if we spend a while getting stuff fixed here? It might not be cheap if I have to overhaul something with the power plant!”

“Then I'll sell some cargo,” Weiss said, looking pained for a moment at the prospect. “Still, it would be nice to have something truly fresh to eat for a few days. I prefer blueberries, but strawberries would be a nice change of pace.”

“Thanks,” Ruby murmured bashfully.

Weiss gave her a small but real smile. The gentle, happy look lit her face up and transformed her from simply beautiful to breathtaking. It didn't matter that she'd only known Weiss for a few weeks, or that she was her captain, she suddenly _knew_ that she liked her. Liked liked her. Wanted to be with her in an adult kind in an exclusive kind of way, even.

Soon Weiss was carrying a small box of strawberries, and before long they had both added a few more bags with electronics parts to their arms. Thankfully there wasn't anything heavy, as most of the sections that had been damaged involved circuit boards and wiring instead of heavy chunks of metal, but it still ended up being a bulky load by the time they were done, as well as a painful looking dent in Weiss's pocketbook. Ruby wasn't sure exactly how much money she still had to spare, but she did her best to keep the purchases as economical as possible.

Once they'd finished their shopping they returned to the ship, Ruby awkwardly clinging to Weiss' arm during the trip through zero gravity while their bags hovered around them. Ruby enjoyed that part, especially without her sister there, but she really needed to learn how to travel through zero g without help.

Once that was done they wandered through the market again until finally, in the next hall they spotted the neon sign for 'Junior's'. A bouncer with a black suit and red tie and with a machete on his belt stood out front, although there didn't really seem to be a line, it being pretty early for visiting a nightclub.

The inside had a large dance floor, with a long bar at the far end of the room, and tables all along the left and right walls. Everything was painted black and red, with strips of white lights creating geometric patterns. A few people were sitting at various tables, including a large group dressed like the bouncer sitting around a man with a bowler hat smoking a cigar and a short woman with multi-colored hair. The bar had more people sitting at it, however, including Yang and Blake, who had a pile of bags next to them.

Ruby trotted over to her sister, throwing herself onto her back. “Sis!”

“Hey, Rubes,” Yang said. “You're in a good mood. I thought you usually hated clothes shopping.”

“Yeah, but Weiss bought us strawberries!” Ruby cheered.

“Really?” she said, looking over at Weiss, who took a careful seat on a bar stool, leaving one open between her and Yang for Ruby to use.

Weiss shrugged. “It would be nice to have something fresh. As you said, I didn't take the time to stock up in Patch.”

Yang smirked. “Sounds good. If you shoot me a little cash tomorrow I'll see about restocking the kitchen. Anyway, enough about that! Let's get some drinks. Hey, Junior, get my sis a virgin strawberry daiquiri, and whatever the princess wants. We're celebrating!”


	14. Working

Ruby groaned as her Scroll chimed its alarm. Opening her eyes, she smiled as she saw the metal ceiling above, and hopped out of bed to peer out the porthole at space beyond. Instead of just stars her grin widened as she saw other ships moored to Beacon, as well as the bright lights that lit up external features of the space station.

Even after weeks in space she still couldn't get over it. She was in space! Space! Waking up every morning expecting to be on Patch but realizing she was in space made her incredibly happy. She doubted that the thrill would ever completely wear off no matter how long she traveled the stars.

After a moment to appreciate her new life she jogged over to her closet and rummaged around for a moment, pulling out a pair of tight pants and a comfortable shirt. It wasn't the prettiest of the clothing she'd bought the day before, but it should be comfortable for working on the ship. She then went into her small bathroom and started the shower.

It was pretty cramped, but she sighed in relief as she got to use actual soap and shampoo for the first time in weeks. She took her time scrubbing herself, wanting to get really clean after so long without proper supplies, and with the ship in port she didn't need to worry about running out of water. Before long she was happily humming off key as she lathered up her hair.

The day before had been great. Spending time with Weiss was so much more fun than she'd expected, and she hoped they'd have more chances to do things together, in port or not. She'd also enjoyed the time all four of them spent together, although the charm had worn off pretty quickly when Yang started getting drunk.

It wasn't that Yang was a difficult drunk. She was actually really friendly, and it had been pretty funny watching Blake smoothly deflect all of her flirts. Ruby just hated alcohol, memories of her uncle at his worst plaguing her, and it was obvious that Weiss was uncomfortable with the display as well. Eventually the two of them had called it an early night, letting Blake and Yang party with the swelling crowd.

Once she was clean and dressed Ruby climbed the stairs up to the main corridor of the ship. No one was around, so she headed quickly to the mess to grab a bowl of cereal. She was tempted to open the box of strawberries, but it felt rude to do so before Weiss could, so with a sad frown she left them, cleaning her dishes and then hurrying to the engine room.

She'd gotten up early so that she could get a good start on the repairs. She was excited to do them, but also it was important for them to get done as quickly as possible. Weiss had made it sound like it would be fine for them to hang around in port for a while, but she knew that the price would be a serious problem.

Ruby soon became lost in her passion. Hours passed, but it felt like no time at all as she focused on tracing the entire electrical system on the ship. Slowly she located every circuit that was having faults, and with the spare parts already on the ship, as well as the ones they'd bought yesterday, she began to make progress on repairing things.

“Ruby?”

She yelped at the unexpected voice, dropping the multimeter she'd been using, forcing her to scramble to retrieve it before it could fall into some dark crevice under the engine room. Breathing a sigh of relief she turned around with a sheepish grin. “Hey, Weiss!”

“Ruby,” she said with a small smile. Ruby was surprised to see her friend in anything but pretty skirts or fancy dresses, but she'd chosen a pair of white capris pants, a blue blouse and a white bolero jacket. The outfit looked gorgeous on her, and seeing her legs without a skirt made Ruby swallow. Weiss was _beautiful_.

She was also carrying two plates of food. A closer look revealed them to be already heated rations, but there were also several strawberries. Just looking at them made Ruby hungry, her stomach rumbling. “Thanks, Weiss!”

“Of course,” she said, giving one to her before carefully sitting on the floor. She was obviously uncomfortable doing so, but she apparently wanted to spend time with Ruby, and there weren't any chairs nearby. “Yang is… indisposed, so I decided to get both of us lunch.”

“Thanks, really,” Ruby said, happily munching on the food. It was no Yang cooked lunch, but the strawberries would've made up for that even if the company already hadn't. “Is Yang okay?”

“Just very hungover,” Weiss scowled. “Honestly, even though we are going to be in port for a while, drinking like that is irresponsible.”

“Yeah, I don't drink at all,” Ruby said. “My uncle… well, you probably met him. He drinks way more than he should, but he used to be really bad a few years ago. After watching that I just… I don't get how Yang can drink.”

Weiss kept her eyes focused on her plate. “My mother… I don't think I've seen her sober in more than a decade.”

“Weiss,” Ruby said, putting hand on her knee, making the woman jump in surprise. She didn't pull away though, just looking up at her with sad eyes. “I'm sorry to hear that. If you… if you ever want to talk about anything you can always come to me. Okay?”

“Okay,” Weiss said.

Ruby grinned and launched herself forward, making Weiss squeak as she was tackle hugged. “We're BFFs! Gotta watch out for each other.”

Weiss was as stiff as a board, but just as Ruby was about to pull away she tentatively hugged back. “Ugh. You're so childish. There is no way I'm going to call us 'BFFs'.”

“That's what you think,” Ruby said, finally pulling away. “I'll wear you down.”

“Just eat your strawberries,” Weiss grumbled.

Ruby's eyes lit up. “Okay! Thanks so much for getting these. You're the best!”

Ruby quickly focused on the fruit, devouring the first one in a single bite. She loved chocolate chip cookies, but nothing, nothing in the universe, was as tasty a fresh, ripe strawberry, and these were the best strawberries she'd ever had! She ate the second just as quickly, but when she reached her third and final one she slowed down, eating it in small bites to savor the deliciousness. She hummed and moaned in pleasure as she slowly, delicately devoured it, finishing the treat by licking her lips to clean up any juices.

Only when she was done did she look at Weiss, who for some reason was blushing fiercely while staring at her wide eyed. “Wh-what is it?”

Weiss looked back at her food, her blush growing even stronger for a moment before she cleared her throat. “Would you… would you like one my strawberries?”

“Sure!” Ruby shouted, eager to eat Weiss' fruit.

Weiss bit her lip, before offering it to her, and Ruby once again devoured it, taking enough time to savor every morsel. Once she was done she realized that Weiss was staring again, still blushing. “Uh… thank you. See, only real BFFs share strawberries!”

Weiss rolled her eyes and finished her own meal, setting it aside. “Right… anyway, how are repairs going?”

“Good,” Ruby said cheerfully. “There were some real problems in the electrical system. The ship had so many redundancies and back up circuits and emergency power sources and stuff that it kept working, but all of those weren't made for long term use, you know? So they'd start getting burnt out, and the power plant would have to reroute power through other systems, which were even worse… anyway, it was bad. But I've got it working much better now! I've still got a bunch more to do, but I'm making real progress.”

“Would you like some help?” Weiss asked. “I'm not… I know I'm not an expert at this, but if another pair of hands would be beneficial in any way…”

“Of course!” Ruby said, hopping to her feet and offering Weiss a hand up. “I'd love to work with you! Here, I'll show you what to do. It's really easy.”

It turned out to not quite be 'really easy' for Weiss, but whenever she started to look frustrated (which was really quickly when she didn't just get how to do something on the first try) Ruby did her best to encourage her. Eventually they'd found things she could do well enough that Ruby didn't have to keep a close eye on her, which sped up the repair work significantly.

One thing did turn out to be an unexpected problem, however, and that was Weiss's clothing. At first it was because she was wearing a lot of white, and she didn't want to get it dirty digging around inside of the electrical system. She became a little less worried about that once she took her jacket off, revealing not just bare arms, but shoulders as well.

The second issue, once Weiss had accepted her remaining clothing would end up a greasy, dusty mess, was far more distracting, however. As beautiful and refined as Weiss looked while wearing her fancy skirts and elegant dresses, skin tight capris pants and shirts that required a jacket to avoid a scandal in polite society turned out to be very distracting for Ruby. To make matters even worse, a lot of the work Weiss was doing involved checking power circuits under the floor of the engineering room, which meant that she spent the majority of the afternoon bending over, or even crawling around on all fours.

It wouldn't have been so much trouble if Weiss wasn't constantly facing away from her. Ruby had long ago decided that she didn't want to be like the people she saw in Qrow's bar, or even her sister when she was looking for someone new to date. Staring at people's butts was rude, and she'd never been more than slightly tempted to do it. When she was looking to date someone, the person they were was more important to her than what they looked like. She liked to think so, anyway, as she was normally too anxious to try dating very often, meaning that she had a pretty short romantic history.

That afternoon Ruby learned something new about herself, however. No matter how much she had always thought she was above such things, she discovered that if the woman was pretty enough, her eyes became magnetically attracted to their bottom. Only by desperately throwing herself into her work did she manage to avoid staring for any length of time, which, when combined with Weiss' help, actually sped up the project many fold.

It didn't make the afternoon any less torturous, however.

Fortunately Weiss had finished up the last section of her work, and was standing around watching as Ruby ran the final diagnostics on the power plant. She was just about to label it a success and look into the inertial dampeners and artificial gravity systems when the iris valve door opened, revealing her sister. “Rubes, ice queen.”

“Don't call me that!” Weiss objected.

Yang blithely ignored her, focusing on her sister instead. “I'm gonna cook some food, and then I was gonna head out to the station with Blake-y, enjoy some more of the night life. You should come with.”

Ruby made a face. “I didn't really like the whole night club thing.”

“Aww, come on sis, you can't just work on the ship all the time,” Yang said. “You've been in here all day, haven't you? You should take a break if you don't wanna burn out.”

“As much as I don't want to agree with the brute, she does have a point,” Weiss said. “I'm not interested in visiting Junior's again, but perhaps we could see a bit more of the station. Blake mentioned smaller markets, and there may be other attractions as well.”

“Well…” Ruby hesitated. She liked working on the ship, but if she refused Yang would keep pushing her until she spent at least some time away from it. Besides, agreeing now meant she could spend time with Weiss instead of getting dragged to the club, so maybe it would be for the best to give in. “Okay.”

Yang looked a little surprised at the quick agreement, before grinning widely. “Alright! Why don't you get cleaned up while I'm cooking, and then all four of us can head out.”

Weiss looked down at herself as Yang scooped up their lunch trash and left. “Ugh. I'm a mess. I suppose I should get a shower.”

“You look good!” Ruby said, before blushing at how dumb that sounded. She really wished her brain was faster than her mouth.

It was true, though. Weiss was smeared with grease and smudged with all manner of dirt, but instead of looking worse it just made her incredibly cute. For someone so beautiful she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty working on the ship, and Ruby couldn't think of anything more attractive than that.

“Thank you,” Weiss said blushing. “You… you are quite attractive yourself. But… but we need a shower! And clean clothing. So… we should go do that. In our own rooms! Not together.”

Weiss closed her mouth, her blush growing, before turning sharply and walking _very_ quickly out of the room. Ruby was red faced herself, not sure what to make of Weiss's sudden mumbles. Did she… was Weiss really interested in her that way? Just the thought made Ruby want to dance, but she decided to be realistic. Daydreaming about pretty girls was fun, but she had work to finish up before taking her shower, and she didn't want to be late to dinner.

Still, when she did shower she took a little longer than usual, even cleaning the grease out from behind her ears (although she had no idea how it got back there!) and making sure her hair was perfect. Which wasn't the same kind of perfect everyone else on the ship went for with their long, perfectly groomed silky hair that would be amazing to run her hands through; she kept her hair in a shoulder length, uneven cut, but she thought it looked cute and it was easy to deal with, so she was normally quite happy with it.

She also grabbed a nice black skirt she'd bought, and paired it with a dark red corset and white peasant top blouse. Throwing her beloved red cloak over it, she took a moment to pose in front of her mirror, smiling at the full effect. Sure, she wasn't her sister, but with a little work she cleaned up okay. At least she didn't look like some kind of street urchin trying to rob Weiss if they spent time on the station together.

When she reached the mess she realized that she was the last one there. Yang and Blake were wearing new clothes, with Blake wearing black pants and a black shirt that revealed her belly and arms, both of which seemed to draw Yang's eye. Her sister was dressed more casually, with khaki shorts and an orange t-shirt, although it was thin enough to leave little to the imagination.

Weiss, on the other hand, had on another dress, and while part of her was disappointed that she wasn't wearing tight pants, the rest of her was awed by how beautiful she looked. All of Ruby's efforts at prettying herself up seemed silly and pointless if she was going to be walking with a princess in a shimmering, silver and white dress with subtle red accents. It looked like something worn on red carpets, but with a knee length skirt to make it easy to move and to show off her gorgeous legs.

“Finally!” Yang said, hopping to her feet to grab food. “If you kept us waiting much longer we would've had to resort to cannibalism.”

Ruby suddenly realized Weiss had been staring at her since she'd walked into the room, and the captain seemed to finally break out of whatever trance she was in when Yang spoke up, turning to her sister and raising an eyebrow. “Why would we do that when we have plenty of food waiting for us?”

“What, you've never eaten pretty girls to pass the time?” Yang asked.

Weiss looked confused for a moment, before turning bright red when she realized what Yang meant. Ruby was impressed at how brightly the pale woman could blush, although she was doing the same. “Yang Xiao Long!”

“Wow, I must be in real trouble if she's throwing my full name around like that,” Yang said as she offered a plate to Ruby and Blake before returning to grab more for herself and Weiss.

“How can you imply something so… so _filthy_ , especially with your sister in the room!”

“Eh, she's an adult,” Yang said. “I can tease her as much as I want. If anyone else tried anything like that I'd knock 'em into orbit, though.”

“In orbit of what?” Blake asked. “That asteroid doesn't provide enough gravity to even bother mentioning.”

“Uh… that star I guess?” Yang said as she served the last of the food and sat down. “I mean, I think the important point is they'd get hit really hard, not astronomy questions.”

Ruby began stuffing french fries (still hot from the frier, ouch!) into her mouth. Yang had made one of their favorites, hamburgers and fries, with lots of ketchup for her and some melty cheese! It was delicious, and it didn't require any ingredients that couldn't be hard frozen. Blake seemed fine with it, but Weiss…

Weiss looked confused and concerned as she tried to use a knife and fork to eat her hamburger. “Hey, you should just pick up your burger. It's like a super awesome hot sandwich!”

“That seems apt to be very messy, not to mention uncouth,” Weiss said.

“Aww, loosen up a little Weiss-y,” Yang said. “You only live once. Besides, a little mess on your dress worn't _burger_ any of us.”

Weiss stared at her blankly for a moment, before going back to cutting her hamburger into small pieces she could eat with a fork. Ruby giggled but decided to let her do what she wanted. “So… are you two still going to the club?”

“If I must,” Blake said with a sigh.

“You must,” Yang said. “If I didn't drag you out of your room you'd spend the whole time reading those books you bought with Weiss's clothes money.”

“And the problem with that is?” Blake asked.

“Nothing… other than it's lame, and you can do that any time, but partying can only be done in port,” Yang said. “What are you two gonna get up to?”

Weiss and Ruby looked at each other, before Ruby shrugged. “I guess we'll just wander around and see what's there to see.”

“Bring your sword,” Blake said. “Beacon isn't as rough as you might think for a place without a legal system; trouble makers tend to face mob justice, or get a bounty put out on their heads, so most people tend to be very polite. It's still best not to look like an easy mark.”

“Of course,” Weiss sniffed, before offering Ruby a small smile. “I'm sure we can find something to do this evening.”

“Yup!” Ruby agreed, her heart pounding a little. She couldn't wait!


	15. Walk in the Park

Weiss had mixed feelings about her evening plans. She hadn't wanted to start an affair with a crew member, but her initial attraction to Ruby had only grown since first meeting her. She still found herself torn, not sure if she should pursue a relationship, or if she should try to just stay friends. She was pretty sure that Ruby was interested in her at least, but did she want to risk such a good friend on something like romance? Especially with her history?

“Hey, you okay?” Ruby asked. “Is your eye bothering you?”

Weiss suddenly realized that she'd unconsciously covered her scar with her hand. Dropping it she gave Ruby a tremulous smile. “It's fine.”

“You're my friend, and I… I care about you a lot,” Ruby said, blushing. “If you ever need to talk about anything…”

Weiss frowned, and looked away for a moment. “I… maybe in a little while. When we're not somewhere so crowded.”

All four of them had left the ship and passed through the bazaar before splitting into pairs. Blake and Yang had headed to Junior's, while they had continued deeper into the station, looking to see what they could find. So far they had simply found more markets, similar to the large bazaar, but more run down and chaotic.

Ruby looked around. “I bet we can find somewhere-”

“It's okay,” Weiss interrupted. “I… I think I would like to talk about it, but I'm not in a hurry. We can take our time.”

Ruby didn't look convinced, but she let it go, taking in the sights instead. The bazaar had been largely off the shelf items, but the smaller markets were more like second hand stores, with used goods and items that Weiss suspected were stolen openly offered for sale. That wasn't terribly surprising, as it wasn't against the law on the station, so as long as you didn't anger anyone it wouldn't cause trouble. Still, it made her feel uncomfortable with the idea of buying anything.

“What's boba?” Ruby asked.

Weiss followed her gaze to a small stall with a line in front of it. “I'm not sure. Would you like one?”

“Okay,” Ruby said. “I think I see strawberry on the flavor list!”

A few minutes later they both walked away carrying small plastic cups with filmy tops and oversized straws to punch through to drink their beverages. Weiss wasn't sure if the drink was a good idea, both because of how strange it was, and her lack of trust of an unregulated stall's food safety. The only reason she was considering drinking it at all was the amount of locals lining up to buy one, as if it was dangerous they would probably avoid it.

Ruby had no such qualms, poking her straw through the top and immediately slurping away. “That's so good!”

Weiss bit her lip, still hesitating, until Ruby looked at her, obviously interested in how well Weiss liked her own. After taking a deep, steadying breath she poked her straw through and took her first sip. The flavor and texture were both strange, but… it was actually quite good.

“Do you like it?” Ruby asked.

Weiss smiled at her. “I do.”

“Yay!” Ruby crowed with a grin. “Oh, hey what's that?”

The 'that' in question was a a side corridor with a strange blue light pouring from it. Weiss shrugged, so the two ambled over to it. Next to the corridor was a sign reading 'Ozma Memorial Park: Dedicated to Beacon's Founder Ozma.'

Weiss could smell a strange, heavy floral scent. It wasn't cloying, but it was powerful, and despite her experiences with many kinds of flowers on Atlas she had never smelled anything quite like it. Intrigued, the two walked down the corridor before freezing when they saw the park.

They had apparently wandered to one of the blister-like glass domes on the surface of the asteroid, with the entire massive area being filled with the park. Much of the surface of the asteroid had been lit up with neon lights, but looking around Weiss realized that this dome didn't have any technology involved in shedding such light.

The ground was covered in a thick carpet of dark blue grass, and filling most of the space between neatly trimmed walking paths were strangely shaped trees. The branches, after projecting outward a certain distance, curled in on themselves, forming loose basket shapes that surrounded strange, brightly glowing blue orbs.

Weiss and Ruby exchanged glances, before walking closer to one of the trees. With a gasp Weiss realized that the brightly glowing orbs were in fact clusters of blooming flowers, the pollen brightly bioluminescent. The trees were simultaneously the source of the floral perfume filling the air, as well as the strange but beautiful light.

“That's amazing,” Ruby whispered.

“It is,” Weiss agreed, just as softly. For some reason it felt wrong to raise their voices, the quiet stillness of the park filling them both with a strange reverence.

After a few moments to study the plants Ruby took Weiss's hand, gently pulling her along. Weiss just squeezed back, and they smiled at each other before slowly strolling along the winding path between the glowing trees under the endless stars. It was hard to believe that such natural beauty could exist anywhere in the universe, especially on a lawless spaces station deep in the frontier.

“This is out of this world,” Ruby murmured. “Er… obviously. But I mean… I'm so glad we came here.”

“Ruby… thank you for joining my crew,” Weiss said. “I don't know what I would've done without you, and the others as well. You've all come to mean so much to me.”

“You… you mean a lot to me, too,” Ruby said with a blush, before looking away to loudly slurp her drink.

Weiss chuckled for a moment, before sighing. “You wanted to know what was bothering me earlier.”

“You don't have to tell me if you don't want to,” Ruby said.

“I'm not sure that I want to, but… I think I'd be happier if I did,” Weiss said. “I've never been good at making friends; I rarely had opportunities to, since my family only let me interact with the high society of Atlas. It was like a nest of vipers, but with fancy dresses and expensive yachts. I never really had many people I felt close enough to to share things with. My 'friends' were more interested in my connections than in me.”

“That's awful,” Ruby said, squeezing her hand tightly. “I don't care that you're some big rich big wig or whatever. Or, uh, were, since you said you weren't anymore or, you know. Um, yeah. What I mean is… you're Weiss, and Weiss is my friend.”

Weiss stared at her for long moment, before swallowing hard and looking away, her heart pounding in her chest. Hearing that… it made her want to drop her cup, throw Ruby against one of the glowing trees and kiss her until they both ran out of air. She managed to restrain herself for the moment however, instead taking a deep breath to speak.

“As I had said, I never really had many friends,” Weiss continued. “There were a few people I could speak with at parties, but I never interacted with them beyond that, and even our talks in those circumstances were limited. I had tried dating once or twice, but those relationships were even more pathetic. It was considered somewhat gauche to be openly gay in Atlesian high society, but being a Schnee I was immune to any serious push back from my identity. It was still difficult to find willing partners, however.

“Eventually I found someone who I thought was different. She wasn't… she wasn't rich. Wasn't one of the influential heiresses I usually interacted with. She was only invited to events because her patron was powerful enough to provide her an in.”

“Patron?” Ruby asked.

Weiss nodded slowly. “Her name was Emerald, and she was an artist. She could paint beautiful pictures… I've always had a fondness for paintings, and she did incredible work. She was mostly known for her holograms, since those were more fashionable, but at one of her openings I spent a long time looking at her watercolors. She found me back there, alone, admiring them and struck up a conversation.

“I wasn't on good terms with the Fall family… they were the patron providing her funding to do her art. But she was funny, and sweet, and before long I had fallen hard for her. She reciprocated, and we dated for several months. My father disapproved, since she wasn't from a wealthy or connected family, and father tried to warn me that she was just using me. I thought… I thought he was just trying to take away more of the things I cared about.”

Weiss fell silent, lost in painful memories, until Ruby squeezed her hand, pulling her back to the present. She looked into Ruby's caring silver eyes and gave her a tremulous smile. “You're father doesn't sound very nice.”

Weiss chuckled sadly. “He's… that's quite the understatement. Blake's opinions about him and his business practices have more truth than I'm comfortable with. Anyway, I was talking about Emerald.”

She took a deep breath, not sure if she wanted to continue. She had never spoken of this to anyone, although her butler Klein had known most of it. She had rarely spoken of herself to anyone, especially about something so personal, but once she had started the words kept tumbling forth, vomiting from her mouth like a volcano under so much pressure that it was forced to erupt. She didn't know if she could stop telling Ruby everything if she tried. “I decided to surprise her… and found her sleeping with Cinder Fall, her patron. I was furious and hurt, and stormed off.”

“I'm so sorry,” Ruby said, pulling her into a hug.

Weiss tensed up for a moment, before leaning into the contact. “That wasn't the worst part. She called me later, told me that Cinder had been forcing herself on her. I believed her… Cinder was always cruel, and I thought I was in love with Emerald. I… I offered lawyers, or bodyguards, or even to run away together. She agreed to the last one, and I promised to bring money so we could start a new life on a different world.

“When I arrived she wasn't there, but instead several strangers met me. They captured me and took the money I had withdrawn from the family accounts. I tried to fight them, but I'd never really fought anyone before outside of fencing practice. I wasn't even carrying a sword, and if I was… I still would've been overwhelmed. All fighting got me was this cut on my face.

“I was tied up, bleeding and unable to see from one eye, and then Emerald walked in. I told her to run, to get to safety. I thought she was going to be kidnapped, too.”

Ruby squeezed tighter, and Weiss realized that she'd started crying. She took a moment to gather herself before continuing. “She wasn't a victim. She laughed at me. Apparently she'd been involved with Cinder for years… Cinder had told her to seduce me. She wanted me out of the way so that she could do something to the SDC.”

“I'm so sorry, Weiss,” Ruby said, rubbing her back. It felt strange. She wasn't used to much physical contact. Outside of sex Emerald had never touched her this much, and her other romantic partners had been similar, and her family after her sister Winter had left home had touched her even less. Ruby comforting her felt more intimate than anything she could remember, and that made her finally breakdown and really cry for the first time in a long, long time.

It didn't last for long, as eventually she stopped, sniffling a bit as she pulled away so that she could look at Ruby again. “I still don't know what they were planning. I know Cinder was going to sell me to the White Fang, and they would've killed me… or worse. The only reason I'm alive is my family butler, Klein, was worried about me disappearing, and he sent my bodyguards to find me. They rescued me, and by the time I was out of the hospital from eye surgery everything had been cleaned up.

“My father… he was furious. More so than I've ever seen him. He…” even talking to Ruby she couldn't make herself talk about it. He had always been hard, pushing her to be perfect and denigrating her efforts whenever she fell short of the unobtainable. There had never been any love from him, even before things had become increasingly difficult with the White Fang, and after he had been so angry that she'd learned to avoid him to keep from being the target of his volatile temper. Her getting kidnapped was the only time he'd ever hit her, however, and the memory still pained her to think about.

“It wasn't long after that that he decided to remove me as heiress, and then when I pushed back against him, he disowned me entirely.”

“So this… everything that happened, it was recent?” Ruby asked quietly.

Weiss nodded. “The kidnapping… it was about six months ago. I suppose that wasn't very long ago, but… it feels like a lifetime. I'm not the same person that I was then. My life is entirely different from what it was, and my future has no resemblance to the one I had lived my life expecting to inherit.”

“I'm so sorry that happened to you,” Ruby said. The words had little meaning to Weiss, except for the way she said them. Ruby was so guileless and so caring that even meaningless condolences like that had weight to them. “If I can ever do anything for you let me know, okay? You mean… you mean a lot to me.”

Ruby was so close, and from the way she was talking, the way she was looking at her… Weiss could've leaned forward to kiss her. But it felt wrong doing so with tears in her eyes while talking about her last lover. The moment just didn't seem right anymore, and if somehow Ruby's feelings for her were all in her head then it would ruin everything. When she finally felt close enough to someone to tell them something so personal tarnishing that would've been devastating.

Instead she gave her a small smile, wiped her eyes, and took Ruby's hand, pulling her along in silence for a little while. The peaceful beauty of the park soothed her, the heavy atmosphere her painful words had brought on slowly fading away in the face of the strange, fairy tale world they strolled through. Weiss wasn't sure what planet the trees had come from, but she really wanted to visit it someday.

The silence was finally interrupted by a loud slurp, making Weiss giggle. Ruby shot her an apologetic look with the straw from her boba still in her mouth, before she slurped agin, making Weiss giggle harder. “Sorry,” she murmured.

“It's okay,” Weiss said, still giggling. “I… I needed that.”

Ruby grinned at her. “Are you feeling better?”

“I am,” Weiss said, a little surprised by how much she meant it. She was a little scared that Ruby was just using her like Emerald was, but it was hard to believe someone so pure and artless as Ruby Rose was capable of such a thing. Making herself vulnerable, confessing such a painful thing, had left her feeling much better instead of weak or exposed. It was a good feeling.

“Good,” Ruby said. “You know, I've never had many people I've been close to, either.”

“Why not?” Weiss asked. “You're… okay, you can be a little awkward, but you've already been such a good friend to me. It's hard to imagine you not having as many friends as you wanted.”

Ruby shrugged. “Dad and Yang always said the same thing, but I'm, well… really awkward. People are way harder to understand than machines, and no one else on the colony liked working on stuff like I did. When you helped out in the engine room today, it was the first time I've ever had someone want to help me like that. I guess I just didn't have anyone who wanted to spend time doing the stuff I liked doing.”

“Still,” Weiss said, shaking her head. “I can't imagine you wanting for friends.”

Ruby smiled at her. “Thanks, Weiss. Yang was always the one with all the friends, though. She was always the life of every party, and even when she was feeling down people wanted to try to cheer her up. It felt like anyone I wanted to be friends with was more her second hand friends, you know? I know she didn't want that, and most of them probably didn't think that, but I always felt like I was just her tagalong. So it was easier to just, you now, tinker with machines and stuff.”

They had passed through the entire length of the park, the winding and twisting trails taking them back to the entrance they had originally come from. Both hesitated, not sure what they wanted to do or where they wanted to go. The peaceful, romantic atmosphere had returned, Ruby's not terribly surprising admission of awkwardness not having the same chilling effect that Weiss' painful confession had had. They both stood, staring into each other's eyes, Weiss' breath catching at the beautiful, quicksilver pools.

Even when Weiss had been completely fooled by Emerald and blinded by her first serious romance she had never wanted to kiss someone as strongly as she did in that moment. They had only met a few weeks before, had only started to get to know each other, but Weiss found her hand on Ruby's cheek, the engineer leaning into the touch.

Fear battled with anticipation, as Weiss was torn between the pain of past betrayal and hope for the future. She found herself frozen, unable to lean forward to kiss Ruby, but unwilling to back away. Instead she stared uselessly into Ruby's silver eyes, hoping that the other woman would make the first move.

Ruby started to lean forward, eyes fluttering closed, when suddenly there was a loud beep, making them both jump away from each other with blushes on their faces. Ruby scrambled for a moment, until she pulled out her Scroll, opening it to reveal her sister's frightened face. “Yang?”

“Ruby! They took Blake!”


	16. Taken

Junior's was just as busy as any other evening; the crowds were dancing, drinking and partying as hard as ever, the personal drama playing out for Weiss's crew of no concern to them. Weiss wanted to resent them for it, but she didn't care about what was going on in their lives, either, so it would be silly to be upset at the same interest being returned.

Yang was sitting at the bar, drumming the fingers of her prosthetic hand impatiently as she waited for them. Ruby ran ahead, shouting her sister's name and then slamming into her when she turned around. Weiss hung back awkwardly as they hugged, until finally they pulled apart and Ruby gestured for her to join them.

“What happened?” Ruby asked.

“We'd been dancing, and we decided to get some drinks,” Yang said. “She went over to one of the side tables to sit down, and I went to get them. I wouldn't have even realized what was happening if Junior hadn't pointed it out.”

“What was happening?” Weiss demanded.

“White Fang,” Yang said. “They did something to her, used a taser maybe, but she was limp and they were carrying her right out the door. The bouncers tried to stop them, but they had weapons and didn't hang around. I tried to run after her, but by the time I made it outside they were gone.”

“What kind of security does this place have!?” Weiss shouted. “If you can just kidnap people from a club how can anyone stomach coming in here, much less getting _drunk_.”

The bartender, who had been hovering nearby serving drinks, glared at her, but she ignored him. “What are we waiting for!” Ruby shouted. “We've got to find her!”

“Don't you think I tried?” Yang demanded, eyes flashing angrily. “They were in a hurry, and nobody pays attention to anybody else's business on this hellhole. Even Junior doesn't know where she went, and he used to play at being a crime boss.”

“You know each other?” Weiss asked.

“We've met,” the bartender rumbled. He was a big man with a very deep voice, and despite his intimidating appearance and fancy suit he flinched when Yang looked back at him, obviously cowed by the blonde.

“You're sure your people don't know anything?” she asked.

“You saw me ask around,” he said with a shrug. “After what happened on Patch I decided to just focus on being a normal club when I opened up again. I lease out my bouncers as muscle sometimes, and I let people rent rooms to make who knows what kind of deals, but I make enough not to risk getting caught up in any more messes.”

Weiss was curious about the history between the apparent former wannabe crime boss and Yang, but with Blake missing they had bigger things to worry about. She wasn't sure why the White Fang would want to kidnap the cat Faunus, but her stomach churned with the fear that it was because of her. Blake had defended her from the White Fang after all, and had even taken a job working for her, a Schnee. Would they kill one of their own kind just because they were connected to her?

“So what do we do?” Ruby asked. “We can't just give up!”

“We aren't,” Yang said, before looking at Weiss and hesitating.

“What is it?”

“Junior does know a guy who might know, but…”

“Spit it out already,” Weiss said impatiently.

“He doesn't do anything for free,” Yang said.

Weiss nodded, lips pressing together tightly. “Fine. Let's speak to him then.”

For the first time since they'd arrived Yang relaxed, if only for a moment. “Okay, just… try not to piss him off. We don't need to deal with a crime boss _and_ the White Fang _and_ the Navy all at the same time.”

“Some criminals sounds like the least of our concerns compared to the rest of that list,” Weiss said.

“Maybe,” Yang agreed with a shrug. “But they're also _right here_ , so…”

“Fine,” Weiss said.

Yang took the lead, skirting around the dance floor and making a bee line for one of the tables on the raised area against the wall. Sitting at it was the man with the cane and bowler hat Weiss had seen the previous afternoon, along with his multi-color haired companion. When they approached several bouncers started to intervene, only to let them through after glancing at Junior.

“What's this?” the man with the hat said, lighting up a cigar and eyeing them up in a way that made Weiss want to take a shower. “I don't remember ordering any entertainment tonight.”

“And things will stay that way if you tell us what we need to know,” Yang said, crossing her arms challengingly.

He chuckled and raised an eyebrow, taking a deep draw off of his cigar before blowing the smoke right in Yang's face, making her cough. Yang clenched her fists, but before she could do anything Weiss stepped forward and spoke. “I don't believe we're acquainted, mister…”

“Torchwick,” he said. “Roman Torchwick. And this is my companion, Neo. Say 'hi' to the Schnee, Neo.”

Neo said nothing, simply waving a hand with a smirk on her face. “How did you know who I am?”

“Please,” Torchwick snorted. “How dense would I have to be not to pay attention to the former richest heiress in the galaxy running away from home. Besides, you've got quite the quiet bounty out for your pretty ass, not to mention the one with less 'living' requirements the Fang have had on you forever.”

Weiss eyed him warily, which made him chuckle. “Don't look at me like that, kiddo. I've got better things to do than turn in _bounties_. Besides, what kind of law abiding scum would that make me look like? No, you're safe from me on that one.”

“Thank you,” Weiss said cautiously. “I hope that we can do some business with you this evening.”

“Business, huh,” Torchwick said. “Sounds like the Schnee apple isn't falling far from the family tree after all. Need something stolen, or maybe something stolen sold? Sure, you can buy or sell anything in the back markets, but if it's hot enough you need a real professional. I can also put you in touch with people that do take bounties, especially the quiet 'dead only' kind, if you get what I mean.”

“We need information,” Ruby said.

“Information, always good business, little red,” Torchwick said cheerfully. “What do you need to know? And can you afford to pay? I know how much Papa Schnee loves stiffing contractors, and that's before the special snowflake over here lost her seat at the big girl's table.”

“I can pay,” Weiss said tersely, glaring at him. She had thought Yang's teasing was annoying, but the difference between his casual malice and Yang's ribbing was stark.

“Good!” he said. “Because if you can't I'd have to recoup my losses somehow, and you would go for _a lot_ in a pinch. I hate bounties though, and I'm not usually a human trafficker, so let's keep things civil, alright? Now! What do you need to know?”

“My friend Blake got kidnapped from this club an hour ago by White Fang,” Yang said. “I tried looking for her, but nobody was willing to piss the Fang off by telling me anything.”

“So you want to know where she is?” Torchwick asked.

“Yes,” Ruby said. “Do you know?”

“I do,” he said. “It's not gonna be cheap, though.”

“I'll pay it,” Weiss said tersely.

“Hmm… that's interesting,” he said. “I wouldn't have thought a Schnee would pay to save someone like _her_.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Weiss snapped.

He chuckled. “You don't know who your little friend is, do you?”

Weiss' brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“So!” he said cheerfully. “Since you're all such fresh faced kids I'll be cheap. Twenty grand, take it or leave it.”

Weiss bit her lip. That was _a lot_ of money for one question. The only reason she could afford to part with it at all was that they were no doubt going to make a quick exit from the station. She probably would have to rent the cheapest slab of concrete on Vale to park the ship on until she'd sold her Dust, and even then she might have to take out a loan against her cargo to stay for more than a few hours. Twenty grand would basically clean her out entirely.

“That's so much money!” Ruby objected.

“That's the price of doing business, kiddo,” he said with a shrug. “Pay it or don't, but my info won't be good for too much longer.”

“Can't you-” Ruby started, only to be cut off by Weiss.

“I'll pay it,” she said.

Torchwick pulled out his scroll, and with a few key presses Weiss transferred her money to him. She bit her lip as the money left, grateful that she hadn't bought more than a drink for her and Ruby that day. She was one fancy dinner away from insolvency.

“Pleasure doing business with you!” he said cheerfully as he checked his balance. “Your little friend got hauled to a White Fang ship that just arrived this morning. It's a little yacht, nothing impressive, but they sure threw around a lot of money looking for the little lost kitten! They're docked over in Port G, which is close to where you're parked if i'm not mistaken.”

“Thank you,” Weiss said, starting to rise.

“You know, you three seem like good kids, so how about a little free advice before you go?” Torchwick said.

“What?” Ruby asked.

“If you're thinking about staging a rescue, you should probably think again,” he said. “If you try to force your way onto their ship from the port Beacon security will space you. If you try to jump their ship once they leave and word gets back Beacon will send their pirate contacts after you. Until they reach wherever they're going I'd advise you to stay far away.”

“Thanks but no thanks,” Yang said. “I'm not leaving her.”

“I'm impressed by how badly you want to save Blake Belladonna,” he said. “Why don't you let the White Fang deal with their own problems?”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

He smirked. “Blake Belladonna's father's a former White Fang High Leader, and she's been a member for most of her life. Hell, she was the right hand to Adam Taurus until just a couple months ago. Seems like someone I'd leave alone if I were you. Besides, do you really want to get on the wrong side of someone like Taurus? He's the one that wants his main squeeze back, after all.”

Weiss felt cold, and her skin tingled. Everything seemed to dim, except for Torchwick's twinkling eyes and mocking smile. She could barely hear anything over the pounding in her ears, and she just followed along as Ruby pulled her to her feet and dragged her out of the club.

Blake was White Fang. Her… she thought she was a friend, but she was _White Fang_. _White Fang_.

“Hey, you okay ice queen?” Yang said.

“She's White Fang,” Weiss said blankly.

Yang and Ruby exchanged concerned looks. “She's Blake,” Ruby said softly.

“Ruby… she's White Fang,” Weiss said, repeating the words like she thought Ruby had simply misheard her the first time.

Yang's face darkened into a scowl, but before she could say anything Ruby started dragging Weiss faster. “Let's talk about it on the ship.”

“She's White Fang,” Weiss repeated mechanically, but she followed along. She was starting to come out of the shock by the time they reached their dock, and she was able to grab hold of both sisters and haul them through the zero g boarding tube. Soon they were back on the ship, and Yang led the way to the mess, pulling a bottle of alcohol out of a cabinet and pouring Weiss a small shot, which she mechanically drank, before screwing her face up in disgust. “Ugh.”

Yang chuckled darkly. “Ready to talk now?”

“Blake is in the White Fang,” Weiss said.

“Was,” Ruby said. “She left them.”

“Did you know about this?!”

“No,” Ruby said, shaking her head. “But she was on the run, right? And the White Fang kidnapped her. If she was still with them they wouldn't have had to do that.”

“Even so,” Weiss said, shaking her head. “Even if she left… she was still with them. For _years_. They're terrorists. _Monsters_.”

“Blake isn't a monster,” Yang growled.

“What would her victims call her?” Weiss demanded.

“She doesn't have victims!” Yang replied hotly.

“You don't know that!” Weiss screamed. “You're from Patch! How much of your family has been killed by the White Fang! How much have they stolen from you! How many times have they tried to kill _you_!”

“And that wasn't Blake!” Yang shouted back.

“How do you know!?” Weiss shouted. “And if it wasn't my family, what if it was someone else's! They're terrorists! They don't get called that because they do nice things! Even if she quit… even if she ran… what did she do before she did?”

Weiss was on the verge of tears, and she could see that for all of her anger Yang wasn't taking the revelations much better. Yang had been flirting heavily with Blake for the entire trip, and even beyond that it was obvious that the two had become fast friends. Finding out someone you cared about was a terrorist wasn't something anyone would want to face.

Then Ruby was there, wrapping her arms around Weiss. “She's our friend. Maybe she… maybe she did bad stuff, maybe she didn't. But I'm gonna save her. If you want to find out the truth… why don't we save her so you can ask?”

Weiss slowly wrapped her arms around Ruby, leaning her head on her shoulder. “And if she is? If she is a murderer?”

“If she is… she's still our friend,” Ruby said quietly. “Yeah, that'd be bad, but… have you ever noticed how sad she is?”

“Sad?” Yang asked.

Ruby pulled back a little so that she could look at her sister, although she didn't fully leave Weiss' embrace. “Yeah… usually when you weren't around telling dumb jokes and flirting with her. Sometimes I'd find her alone and she'd just… look sad. I don't know what all she did, but I think it hurt her a lot. Even if she did bad stuff I don't think she's a bad person.”

“If you do bad things, then what difference does it make what you think about them?” Weiss asked. “You're just a bad person who justifies the bad things you do.”

“Maybe,” Ruby said. “Or maybe you're a good person who's been forced to do things you shouldn't have had to do!”

“So, what are we gonna do captain?” Yang asked neutrally, crossing her arms and staring into Weiss' eyes. “Are we gonna take Blake back, or do you want to abandon her to terrorists?”

Weiss slowly pulled away from the comfort of Ruby's embrace, stepping back so that she could face both of them. Yang didn't call her captain with deference, but she didn't call her captain with sarcasm, either. Weiss realized that this moment would make or break whether Yang actually respected her command.

“I'm not going to let her go until I know the truth,” Weiss said steadily. “And even if she is a criminal, I wouldn't leave her in the hands of monsters like the White Fang.”

Yang smiled at her, and she smiled back. Ruby squealed happily, bouncing in place, and Weiss felt her heart swell. They were a team, a crew, a _family_ , and it was time to get their fourth back. Maybe things were looking bad, and maybe Blake wouldn't stay with them any longer once she told them the truth, but for the first time in her life Weiss was surrounded by the people she wanted to be with. She wasn't going to abandon Blake without at least looking in her eyes and asking her why.

“So… what do we do?” Ruby asked.

“That's… that's a good question,” Weiss said, deflating.

“We go and rescue her of course!” Yang said.

Weiss snorted, shaking her head. “That reprobate we bought information from was right. If we try to invade their ship from the dock we'll be killed before we even make it onboard. We're also not in any position to attempt a hostile boarding when they leave, even ignoring the long term consequences.”

“If we wait until they reach some other planet to make our move Blake might be dead,” Yang said. “Even if they keep her alive, it could be weeks before they get to wherever she's going, and that'd probably be a White Fang base, anyway. And I'm not gonna let them do who knows what to her for _weeks_.”

“We might not have a choice,” Weiss said. “We can't rescue anyone if we're dead.”

“Then we'll have to try to jump them when they leave the station,” Yang said. “We're fast, right? And this ship is pretty tough. If we can race through their guns we might be able to tractor them and extend a boarding ramp.”

Weiss frowned. “The tractors are only designed to move small objects about in space. If its the yacht we saw on Patch you'd have to be incredibly close to even try to hold them still. And once you did we'd have to line up airlock to airlock; this ship doesn't have any kind of hostile boarding tube, so we'd have to go through their airlock where they'd be waiting for us. And that all assumes that we can both survive their armaments, and that you can pilot close enough to tractor them.”

“Okay, then what about the docks?” Yang asked. “Yeah, it'll be dangerous, but if people don't try to attack because of the guards it might take them a while to notice what's happening. I can give us a little cover from anything they do if we can get inside quick enough.”

“That's making some big assumptions about their readiness,” Weiss said. “Even if they are slow they'll be ready for us before we can leave the White Fang ship. We'd end up shoved out an airlock. Besides, the last time the White Fang shot at us your AURA didn't hold up that long, assuming the guards just fire guns.”

Yang shrugged and pointed at the large golden colored bracelet shaped devices on her wrists. “We were running so I couldn't really use these bad boys. I could block the ramp for a bit while you found a way in.”

“But we still wouldn't be able to get out,” Weiss said.

“We have to do something,” Yang said. “I won't abandon her.”

“I want to get her back, too, but we can't just go off half cocked,” Weiss said. “We need a real plan!”

“I've got one!” Ruby suddenly shouted. “I've got an idea!”


	17. Silent Stroll

“Here, let me get that,” Weiss said, reaching over and helping adjust Ruby's spacesuit. It was slim, resembling a normal jumpsuit, and fortunately there were enough on the ship that she found ones that fit Ruby and Yang. Yang's mechanical arm was the biggest difficulty for fitting, especially when combined with the need to accommodate her impressive bust, but she was making the final adjustments on both of them with a critical eye; you couldn't afford to make mistakes when it came to spacesuits. “There, all done.”

“Okay,” Ruby sighed. “Just gotta get my gun.”

Weiss frowned. “Do you have any ship rounds?”

“Ship rounds?” Ruby asked.

“Normal bullets can easily over-penetrate and damage ship systems,” Weiss lectured. “We might not care if we expose the White Fang to hard vacuum, but it wouldn't be much of a rescue of Blake died because of overzealous shooting.”

“So what are ship rounds?” Ruby asked.

“They're bullets designed to carry a lot of force, but not penetrate very well,” Weiss said. “Remember when Yang was shot but the bullet didn't make it very deep?”

“I thought that was because of my AURA slowing it down,” Yang said. She was still trying to get all of her hair under a tight cloth cap so that she could put her helmet on.

“Partially,” Weiss acknowledged. “But it was probably a ship round as well. Most people don't use metal bullets unless they live on planets.”

“I don't have any… do you?” Ruby asked.

“A few sizes, but I'm not sure what your rifle needs,” Weiss said.

“Fifteen millimeter,” Ruby said.

Weiss' eyes bugged out for a moment. “ _Fifteen_ _millimeter_ _?!?_ Why would you ever need that? What kind of predators did Patch have?”

“Nothing big,” Ruby said with a shrug. “Big guns are cool, and Uncle Qrow had a bunch of gun smithing equipment, so, you know…”

Weiss shook her head. “Well, I've never even heard of ship rounds for a gun that big, and you really don't want to be firing it on a ship. Hulls are tough, but if one of those hits the wrong seam, or a porthole, then anyone in that compartment is in trouble.”

“Didn't you make a bunch of plastic bullets for the shooting range?” Yang asked.

“Oh yeah, I do have those!” Ruby said. “Those might work!”

“Plastic bullets?” Weiss asked.

Yang shrugged. “Patch doesn't have much mining, and nobody ships lead, so it's a lot cheaper to make plastic bullets, and they're biodegradable so you don't have to worry about cleaning them up later. They're pretty soft for ammo, so I doubt even her gun could damage much on a ship with them.”

“Alright,” Weiss said. “It looks like you've got your hair and suit ready, so let's get guns as well.”

“You've got some?” Yang asked curiously. “I thought you'd just use your sword.”

“I prefer it,” Weiss acknowledged. “Melee weapons may have advantages in close quarters on a ship, but _Myrtenaster's_ armory has firearms as well.”

Calling it an 'armory' oversold it a bit. It was a reinforced locker built into the back wall of the bridge, providing just enough room for two shotguns, six handguns, four cutlasses, and four nightsticks, along with several boxes of ammo.

“Not bad,” Yang said, reaching in and grabbing a shotgun. It was a simple, reliable pump action weapon, and after checking it over she grabbed a box of shells and began stuffing her spacesuit's pouches with them.

Weiss hesitated for a moment. She didn't like guns, but she'd received enough training that she wasn't a danger to herself or her friends with one, and ranged weapons could be handy depending on how the White Fang ship was laid out. With that in mind she grabbed a pistol and holster, attaching it under her right arm along with two spare magazines of ship rounds.

“Cool!” Ruby said from behind them. “I was wondering what that locker was!”

Ruby had her own gun, which was currently folded up for easy transport. It was bright red in color, obviously heavily customized, and Weiss suspected that it would be very intimidating when fired. “Do you need anything else?”

“I'm good,” Ruby said. “Swords are cool, but I don't know how to use one, and I don't think this is the right time to experiment.”

Weiss nodded, not sure what to say, and after seeing that the others were ready she turned and strode briskly down the ship's main corridor, the others following closely behind. After passing through the mess they reached the large cargo hold, and she climbed down a ladder to the deck, leading the way to the wide cargo airlock. She wished that it was on the opposite side of the ship from the main airlock, as it was possible for someone to look out and see them from the docks once they left the ship, but unfortunately that wasn't an option.

The airlock doors hissed open, and the three stepped inside. “Is everyone ready? One last spacesuit check.”

The suits were plain white in color, with no decoration besides a small SDC symbol on the right side of the chest, as well as a larger one on the backpack. When they reached Vale she needed to get those removed, but she was simply grateful for having gotten new, high quality ones to replace the ancient ones that had been on the ship before she left Atlas.

“I'm good,” Yang said, pulling on her helmet. The front half was completely clear, although it would automatically become opaque if it was bright outside. With just a few fumbles she connected it, and it hissed into place once it was sealed.

Weiss walked around her for a moment, checking every seam one last time, along with the small, thin rebreather and air supply on her back, and the tiny thruster nozzles attached to it, as well as the control belt around her waist. Satisfied with her physical inspection, she did the same for Ruby, before pulling her own helmet on and checking herself. Once her inspection was complete she pressed a button on her belt, firing up a heads up display on the inside of her helmet showing her vitals, as well as the condition of the suit, and how much air and thrust she still had left.

“Connecting us,” Weiss said, reaching up to press virtual buttons displayed by her HUD on her helmet. Two more IDs popped up as all three suits became linked, letting them all see each other's status at any time. “Radio check.”

“Ready to go, ice captain,” Yang said.

“This is so cool!” Ruby gushed.

“Alright, there should be a line in the airlock's locker,” Weiss said, gesturing at it. Yang opened it up, revealing several spare spacesuits, these bulkier as they were designed to fit any body type in an emergency without adjustment at the cost of being harder to move in. Also in the locker were a few tools, as well as line used to anchor people while working outside of the ship.

While Yang began to attach the line to their belts, Weiss spent a few moments typing away at her HUD. It felt awkward typing with her fingers facing towards herself, but she made progress, eventually getting the location of Port G entered into her suit. It was fortunately close by, but they couldn't see most of the ships docked there so they would have to wing it when they got close.

“Alright, I'm ready,” Weiss said. “Remember, don't use your thrusters unless you absolutely have to, and once we open that airlock we need radio silence. If we get spotted… I'm not sure if this actually breaks any of the station rules, but it's against the spirit of them so we'd probably be killed regardless. Are you both ready?”

Yang touched both of her bracelet devices, which she'd removed and then put on over her spacesuit, then adjusted the gun she'd hung over her shoulders and gave a nod. Ruby twisted a bit to settle the folded rifle, which was strapped to her control belt along her lower back, and then checked the line connecting them together before giving Weiss a thumbs up. With that Weiss pressed a few more buttons, disconnecting the network between the suits and putting them all into radio silence.

With all three ready Weiss activated the airlock, which began to pump the air out. They stood in silence, only the barely audible rush of air evacuating able to be heard, until even that became silent as most of the atmosphere departed, before, with a slight vibration, the outer door opened, exposing them to space.

Weiss walked over to the edge, where one more step would take her out onto her first ever space walk. She was acting confident, but while she'd trained in a spacesuit and in zero gravity, she had never actually gone into space before her current trip, as she hadn't had a reason to leave the ship. Going out into the unforgiving void without even a line connecting her to the _Myrtenaster_ was terrifying, as if she lost control she could float away into the darkness forever, her body lost to eternity.

After taking one more deep, steadying breath she pushed a button on her control belt, activating the electromagnets in her boots, and stepped awkwardly onto the hull of the ship. Her breaths were loud in her own ears, as the only other sounds were the clunking of her feet attaching to the metal hull as she walked, pausing to give the other two time to awkwardly clamber out after her. Ruby had a huge grin on her face, while Yang looked less thrilled, but soon they were on the outside of the ship, and Yang pressed the button to close the airlock doors.

Walking with magnetic boots was a slow, awkward process. They were computer controlled, increasing and decreasing grip based upon how she was stepping, but it still felt odd having her feet anchored in place when she had them pressed to the hull. It didn't take long to walk to the top of the ship, however, and once she did she turned and looked up, following the indicators on her HUD as she searched for the proper dock.

She still couldn't see their target, but she was in position, with Yang to one side of her and Ruby the other. Reaching out, she took Ruby's hand in her left, and Yang's in her right. She then nodded to their belts, and they both reached down to turn off their magnetic boots, leaving them unanchored, although they stayed mostly still, as nothing had made them move. Ruby still looked excited, although without her connection to 'ground' Yang looked like she was turning green. With a slight smirk at that Weiss crouched and spoke. “Spacesuit command: disable boots.”

There was a beep, and Weiss pushed off, launching herself away from the ship hard, pulling the other two with her by their hands. Her jump wasn't that fast, both because she wasn't the strongest person, especially since she was trying to launch three bodies, and also because she needed accuracy. She didn't want to risk using thrusters unless absolutely necessary, which meant that her initial jump needed to be on course for a target none of them could actually see.

Floating through the void was a strange combination of peaceful and terrifying. The only connection to humanity she had were the hands she held in her own, both of which gripped her as tightly as she held them, despite how long they'd been floating. It felt like they weren't moving at all, no wind in their faces or sounds to be heard, but a glance at the asteroid showed their painfully slow progress as they drifted towards Port G.

Their course had been slightly towards the asteroid, as they would need to make contact with a surface if they wanted to change course without using thrusters. After an endless wait they finally reached a rocky outcropping, which hadn't quite been her target, but which was close enough to not have to admit that to Yang or Ruby later. Weiss let go of the others, needing her hands free to catch herself on the asteroid, and soon both herself and Yang had found good grips on the rough rock, although Ruby missed her own grab, bouncing off and floating away for a moment, her flailing arms making her slowly spin until finally she reached the end of her tether and began to rebound.

The asteroid had a tiny amount of microgravity, not nearly enough to walk or prevent them from launching off again, but enough to make their bodies want to slowly drift towards it given time. It helped a little as they climbed along its face, all three slowly progressing along the outside of the asteroid until they reached a spot where they could see all of Port G.

Ruby's plan had been quite vague on a number of points, including how they should figure out which ship was the White Fang's. They had simply been forced to hope that it would be obvious, and fortunately it was. The White Fang yacht, whether through brilliant deduction or blind luck, had managed to follow them all the way from Patch. That meant they had both an idea of how many there were (too many) as well as knowing which ship they were after.

Yang had spotted it too, as she slapped Weiss' shoulder, a motion that threatened to send them both drifting away from the asteroid, before pointing at the ship. Weiss rolled her eyes and nodded, before lightly tapping Ruby's arm to point it out to her as well. She then put her feet under her as best she could, letting the microgravity help her settle into something resembling a crouch, before she reached out for both of their hands.

The next leap was far slower than the one from their ship to Port G had been. They barely drifted forward, but at least Weiss had managed to push off in the correct direction. She felt her heart begin to speed up, the sound almost painfully loud in the silence as she drifted closer and closer to their target. Before long they would reach the enemy ship, just three desperate idiots against a platoon of terrorists.

Finally, after a silent eternity of fearful waiting they arrived, although her course had drifted them to the end of the engines, leaving them with barely enough room to make contact with it at all. With a voice command she turned her magnetic boots back on, landing lightly with a clank she could hear transmitted up through her feet.

Ruby apparently forgot to do the same, as she managed to make contact for a moment, before bouncing off, leaving her flailing about until she reached the end of her tether again. Yang failed to twist her legs properly to make contact, instead thumping stomach first into the engine cowling, before bouncing off, leaving her twirling and thrashing about, somehow spinning enough to get tied up in her safety line.

Rolling her eyes, Weiss first helped Ruby return to the ship, and once she was standing on its hull they worked together to free Yang, her squirming and thrashing having just made things much, much worse. She was red faced when they finally managed to settle her boots on the ship, but other than some future teasing material they had reached the White Fang ship without incident.

Ruby led the way. She had never seen the White Fang ship before, but she had worked on similar yachts, and she quickly found the airlock not connected to Beacon. Once they reached it they paused for a moment, before Weiss grabbed each of them and pulled them in so close that their helmets were touching.

“Are you both ready?” Weiss called loudly.

They blinked in surprise, before Ruby answered, her voice muffled from being transmitted by the physical contact between their helmets. “Can you get the airlock open?”

“Of course,” Weiss said. “They'll know something is wrong quickly, if they haven't noticed us already.”

“Then let's go!” Yang shouted.

Weiss pulled away and drew her sword. The outer airlock doors of a starship were secured to prevent people from breaking in, although the most common fear was criminals in port stealing cargo or attempting to hijack the ship. In space most hostile boarding attempts involved special rigid boarding tubes designed to latch on and both hold the other ship in place, as well as bore a hole through its hull to allow the ship to be boarded from anywhere, the tube sealing the edges of the breach to prevent the ship from depressurizing.

Without a hostile boarding tube, cutting through the hull anywhere but at the airlock risked killing Blake before they could rescue her, which meant that there was only one place they could enter the ship. Ignoring the control panel entirely, Weiss turned on the forcefields around her sword, and with little effort cut through the thick, reinforced airlock door.

Air blasted out from the cut, and the humidity within froze into ice around the growing gap. Weiss felt some resistance cutting through the thick metal, but not enough to slow her down; in less than a minute she had cut all the way around the inside door of the airlock, finishing with one foot on the door and one foot on the ship's hull, before using her magnetic boots to pull the airlock door out of position, releasing her foot and stepping inside as the metal hunk drifted away into the void.

The inside of the airlock had nothing left but hard vacuum, but its artificial gravity was working, letting Weiss easily stand as she pressed the buttons to reactivate their suit's network. It was encrypted to make it difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop on the suit transmissions, and the ship was surely receiving numerous alarms about their presence by then anyway.

“Ruby, can you override the inner door?” Weiss asked. “There should be an emergency control to force it open despite the vacuum.”

“On it,” Ruby said, pulling out a tool from a belt pouch and prying the control panel open.

“They'll know something's wrong, so they'll probably try to keep us from getting any deeper into the ship,” Weiss said. “All the air blowing out when we open the airlock should disorient them, but it'll slow us down as well.”

“Right,” Yang said, slamming her fists together silently and taking up a position in front of the airlock door. “You about ready, sis?”

“Just one more second…” Ruby trailed off for a moment. “Got it! Okay, ready?”

Weiss activated her magnetic boots to help with the blast of air and raised her sword. “Ready.”

“Let's do this,” Yang said.


	18. Boarding Action

If you had asked Ruby what would happen when you opened the inner airlock door while the outer door was missing, she would've been able to tell exactly what would unfold, starting from the first exciting 'whoosh' of air rushing out, to everything not nailed down getting sucked out from the sudden explosive decompression, to the rapid boiling and freezing of liquids exposed to hard vacuum. It was all really cool stuff, and even if she hadn't read all about it, she had seen it on a smaller scale just minutes before when Weiss had first penetrated the outer airlock with her Dust Blade.

There was a big difference between being intellectually aware of something, and truly being ready for it, however. When she hit the button to open the airlock, the only reason she wasn't knocked off of her feet and sent flying out across the star system were the magnetic boots she'd forgotten to turn off in her eagerness. Instead she was knocked back, her ankles hurting as her feet remained locked in place while she almost reached a completely horizontal position for a moment, before she managed to pull herself up and brace herself, and she hadn't even been directly in front of the door.

Yang was, but while her sister didn't always act like the smartest person around, she had easily coasted through her education requirements, and she had a secret love for watching documentaries between her action films and rom coms when she thought no one was around. She was braced and ready, and after adjusting to the initial blast of wind she began slowly walking forward, leaning like she was trying to make headway into a hurricane, her powerful legs churning as she forced her way onto the ship.

Weiss followed behind, and when she reached Ruby she offered a hand, and the two helped each other push through the escaping air. They didn't want to wait until the wind died down, as that would mean the ship had run low on air, and while she wasn't sure how concerned Weiss would be about some dead terrorists, Ruby didn't want to hurt anyone if she didn't have to. Even if they had agreed to kill all the White Fang members, Blake was on board, so it wasn't option.

Once they were finally in Yang hit the door close button, and the airlock snapped shut. It was eerily quiet for a moment after the loud rush of wind stopped, and Ruby looked around, taking in the corridor. It looked like they were close to what was probably the engine room, its iris valve doors ensuring that it wasn't effected by the decompression.

There was a muffled bang, and Yang moved in front of the group, raising her mechanical arm in front of her body. There was a blurry shimmer a moment later as the Dust Shields on her wrists kicked on, the forcefield becoming more visible as bullets struck it.

Down the hall were three White Fang members. Two had shotguns, and the third a pistol, and all of them were firing rapidly towards the three of them, with only how thin the air was keeping the gunfire from being deafening in the tight corridor. Yang slowly began to stalk forward, the forcefield projected from the her bracelets keeping the shots at bay, but it also made it difficult to move quickly, and while much stronger than a personal AURA, the devices wouldn't last forever.

Ruby dove onto her belly, pulling out her rifle as she did, extending the device and looking down the sights even as they were still being deployed. She'd spent countless hours working on Crescent Rose, and even more plinking away on the shooting range with it, and she tried to ignore that her targets were living people shooting back at them while she lined up her first shot.

She had to shoot below the level of Yang's forcefield, which meant that the best shot she could take was at knee level. At least that meant that, even if she managed to beak their AURA, she still only had to worry about crippling them. She took a deep breath, wished she wasn't wearing a helmet, and pulled the trigger when she breathed out.

The thin air couldn't do much to mute the roar of the oversized 15mm sniper rifle. Even with plastic training bullets and a military grade AURA the man's leg flew back when she hit it, sending him crashing to the floor with a breathy scream. She reach up, worked the bolt to chamber a new round, and then sighted on the terrorist on the opposite side of Yang. One deep breath later she shot him as well, even knowing it was coming doing nothing to help him prepare.

Once he was down Yang dropped her arms, the forcefield disappearing as she raised her shotgun, quickly firing several times into the last man's stomach. He took the first well, blazing back with his pistol, but his AURA failed on the third shot, and a small pool of blood formed under him when he hit the ground whimpering in pain.

It was silent for a second, before Ruby jumped out of her skin as Weiss spoke over their comms. “Good job. Any idea where they might be keeping Blake?”

“Well, it's a yacht, so it shouldn't have a real brig,” Ruby said. “If they've got her locked up somewhere its gotta be a locker or a cabin. Either way its probably that way.”

She gestured down the hall while she said it, and Yang nodded. “Alright. Guess we gotta check every door until we find her.”

“We're going to end up fighting the whole ship,” Weiss said with a frown, her grip tightening on her sword.

“Actually… I've got a better idea,” Ruby said.

“Is this a better idea than spacewalking to the yacht?” Weiss asked.

“Hey, it worked!” Ruby objected. “We made it!”

“Bicker later you two,” Yang said. “What's the plan?”

“I should be able to check the security cameras in the engine room,” Ruby said, gesturing towards the iris valve behind her. “I can find where she is, and I can figure out where all the bad guys are!”

“Good idea, sis!” Yang said cheerfully, leading the way back to the iris valve door to the engine room while ignoring the three White Fang down in the corridor.

Weiss finally tore her eyes away from the blood to follow Yang. “Are you sure you can get in? The cameras should have a lot of security.”

Ruby frowned. “Maybe… but if we hurry they might not have things locked down. Most of the time you have to leave the engine room computers open so you can work on stuff.”

Hearing that Yang sped up a little, hitting the button to open the door and storming in immediately when they opened, ignoring the whoosh of air from the sealed engine room. She was met by a metal tool swinging at her head, but she caught it on the forearm of her prosthetic. Before the Faunus, who had a stubby crocodile tail poking out of the back of his pants, could try to attack her again, she stepped into a powerful punch with her human hand, catching him on the side of the jaw and sending him spinning to the ground.

Weiss then darted past Yang, swinging her sword in a tight arc that cut through the wrench the only other person in the room was holding. His jaw dropped as he stared down at the new shiny end of his half wrench, which gave Yang enough time to knock him out with a roundhouse punch to his temple. He hit the ground, his AURA barely triggering against something as slow and soft has a human fist, but Yang's long hours of boxing training paid off as she leveled him with just one blow.

The engine room was smaller than the one on _Myrtenaster_ , but it was in much better condition. Nothing was corroded, and the thick layer of grease that seemed to cover all of the machinery on the other ship had been replaced with clean, brushed aluminum surfaces, smooth white plastic, and shiny chrome. It was amazing how well the terrorist ship was maintained, but at the same time it lacked the homey feeling of their own ship.

“Think you can see the cameras, Rubes?” Yang asked.

Ruby nodded and jogged over to the computer console, which unfortunately was locked out. She was sure that a computer expert could find a way around it, and given some time she could probably find the ship's computer core and force it to reboot into maintenance mode to get around any security, but that could take longer than just finding Blake. She was about to give up and admit her failure when she noticed how the system was locked out.

“Hey Yang, drag one of them over here.”

“Sure thing, sis,” Yang said, easily hoisting the second Faunus, who Ruby noticed had small goat horns, onto her shoulder and carrying him over. “What do you want him for?”

“Just need his hand real quick,” she said, grabbing it and putting it on the palm reader. There was a ding, and a moment later the computers unlocked. “Thanks!”

“No problem,” Yang said.

Ruby set to work, the modern, state of the art computer system feeling strange after so long using _Myrtenaster's_ archaic interfaces, but also familiar, as it more closely resembled that of her Scroll. After just a couple of minutes she found what she was looking for, bringing up all of the internal security cameras.

“There she is,” Weiss said suddenly, making Ruby jump. She'd been busy long enough to miss Yang and Weiss tying up the two White Fang with electrical cabling and joining her in front of the screens.

Blake was sitting in one of the passenger cabins, her hands cuffed to a chair while a pair of twin Faunus, one with tall ears and the other with a fluffy tail, interrogated her. Just as they were about to leave the one with the ears backhanded Blake hard enough that if the chair hadn't been attached to the floor to keep it from sliding around during sharp maneuvers it would've surely tipped over.

“Oh, hell no,” Yang growled. “Let's go.”

“One sec,” Ruby said, pressing buttons rapidly. She wanted to hurry just as much as Yang did, but she needed to make sure that the yacht wouldn't immediately follow them away from Beacon. With a few keystrokes she did as much damage to the ship as she could without killing anyone, enough to buy them at least a day or two before the yacht would be able to leave port. “Ready.”

A glance at the cameras as they headed to the door showed that more terrorists were waiting for them, so Ruby laid down on her stomach again, while Yang created another force field right in front of the door. When Weiss hit the door open button Ruby immediately lined up a shot, her more prepared position letting her hit her first target in the face. While his AURA reacted strongly to the high powered sniper round it also wasn't powerful enough to completely save him as it broke his nose and knocked him instantly unconscious.

The White Fang had been waiting as well, firing their guns at Yang, only for the bullets to deflect harmlessly away. Ruby worked her gun's action and fired again and again, rapidly going through bullets for Crescent Rose as she cleared the hall of enemies. When about half of them were down the rest decided standing in the narrow hall without any cover was a bad idea and fled down the corridor, several ducking into side doors as she kept firing at them.

“Let's go!” Yang shouted, dropping the forcefield so that she could run down the hall, hurdling downed terrorists as she went. Ruby easily kept pace with her sister, and to her surprised pleasure Weiss had no trouble doing so as well, the heiress apparently in better shape than she would've expected. She also noticed that both of them did their best to avoid looking at the downed people, Ruby hoping that they were okay and not wanting to look closely enough to find out if she'd killed anyone.

“That's the one!” Ruby suddenly called, making Yang stumbled to a halt in front of one of the doors.

“Right,” Yang said, raising her shotgun. Weiss moved up beside her, sword at the ready, while Ruby moved behind them, hoisting her rifle. They all nodded to each other, then without needing words Weiss hit the door open button.

The cabin was small, and unlike those on the _Myrtenaster_ there weren't any steps down to the floor of the room. It was a sparsely furnished ship's cabin, with Blake handcuffed to a chair near the desk along the far wall. The same two Faunus from the video were still there, and they turned in surprise when the door opened.

“Get on the ground!” Yang shouted, pointing the shotgun at their heads, conveniently putting Blake out of the firing line.

The two exchanged looks, before sneering at Yang. “You won't get away with this, whoever you are.”

“Yeah, yeah, you'll get me, and my little dog, too,” Yang drawled, before gesturing with the barrel of her gun as she stepped into the room. “Now get down or Blake-y won't be the only ex-terrorist in the room.”

“Yang…” Blake murmured. Her lip was split and she had the start of a black eye, and from the look on her face she couldn't believe that they were really there.

After one last, long hesitation the two terrorists dropped down onto the ground, putting their hands behind their heads as they lay down flat. With a sigh of relief Ruby ran in, skirting around them so that she could check on her friend. “Blake! Are you okay?”

“Yes, I… I'll be fine,” she said after a moment. “What are you doing here? How… why did you come?”

“To save you of course!” Ruby said cheerfully. “What, did you think we would just leave you?”

Blake was silent for long enough that Ruby realized she had, in fact, expected them to just leave her. Before she could think of anything to say Weiss walked up to them with a pinched expression on her face and her sword in hand. “Weiss! She's gonna be okay! Isn't that great?”

“Weiss?” one of the criminals on the ground said, raising his head to stare up at her. “Weiss _Schnee?!_ ”

Weiss gave him a brief dismissive glance that made Ruby feel rejected just standing nearby, before returning her attention to Blake, who spoke before the heiress could say anything. “I'm sorry… I'm not with them anymore. I left the White Fang because-”

“Stop,” Weiss said sharply.

“But-”

“No, don't say anything,” Weiss said. “Did you really think I would abandon a member of my crew? Of course we were going to rescue you no matter what.”

“Weiss, I-”

“No, I don't want to hear the rest,” Weiss said, narrowing her eyes. “You aren't with them anymore, right?”

“No!” Blake said. “I left.”

“Then that's all I need to know,” Weiss said, walking behind her. “Now hold still.”

The handcuffs were made from a high end titanium alloy, strong enough to hold something a hundred times stronger than a person in place, and tough enough to resist any kind of traditional cutting tool short of a plasma torch, which would leave Blake with enough damage that it would be quicker and easier just to cut her hands off and reattach them. They didn't present more than a moment's resistance to Weiss' Dust Blade, the forcefield shearing through the metal as well as it did anything besides another forcefield.

Once her hands were free Blake brought them back in front of her body, gently rubbing her raw, bloody wrists for a moment. “Thank you.”

“Here,” Ruby said, handing Blake an AURA device she saw sitting on the desk.

“Thanks,” she said, reattaching it to her belt as she slowly stood, a brief flicker of light surrounding her body as the protective forcefield activated. “What's the plan?”

“Plan?” Ruby asked.

“For how we get out of here,” Blake said. There was a long, long pause. “Um… you have a plan, right?”

“We were kinda… busy thinking about how to get this far,” Ruby said.

“Honestly, I'm mostly surprised we didn't die horribly during step one of the 'plan',” Weiss said, air-quoting as she said it, making Ruby huff.

“Well, we could find Blake a spacesuit and do the same thing again,” Ruby said.

“Spacesuit?” Blake repeated, eyeing what the three of them were wearing. “Did you space walk to this ship?”

“Yup!” Ruby said happily. “It was awesome! Kinda scary, too, since I've never been out in space before, but really cool. And we didn't have to worry about getting caught!”

“They should have some spares near the airlock,” Weiss said.

“Then let's get to it,” Yang said as she pressed the door open button and stuck her head out, only to pull back as a deafening sound erupted. It was like continuous thunder mixed with a sound like a massive sheet tearing. Yang hit the door close button and then locked the door.

“What was that?!” Weiss demanded.

“I think we took too long,” Yang said sheepishly. “They've got a machine gun set up.”

They all paused to take that in. “A _machine gun?!”_ Weiss finally said, her voice incredulous.

“Yeah, I don't think we're going out that way,” Yang said, before tapping her Dust shields. “Even these bad girls aren't gonna keep us safe long enough to do anything. They'll probably bust through the hall if they keep firing it, too, so Blake-y'd be in trouble if we tried it.”

“Then… then what do we do?!” Weiss asked.

Ruby frowned, staring at the wall for a moment. “Hey… we're pretty close to the main airlock, right?”

“I didn't see it out there,” Yang said. “Even if we are we'd have to get past the machine gun to get to it.”

“It's not out there,” Ruby said, turning to face the back wall of the room. “This ship has two main corridors. The main airlock is on the other one.”

Weiss looked confused for a moment before she smirked and raised her sword. “Just tell me where not to cut.”


	19. Slipping Away

Ruby cringed at the glare Weiss leveled at her, chuckling sheepishly as her friend sighed and went back to cutting. She had pointed out what she'd guessed was the safest place to cut through the wall, but it's not like she had the plans for every ship in existence memorized! It wasn't her fault that Weiss had hit a water pipe.

“Hey, at least it's not hot… or sewage,” Ruby tried.

“Ugh, don't even make me think about something like that!” she growled, still cutting away. Finally she had a perfectly circular section of wall cut, and Yang dragged the section away so that it didn't crush her or loudly give away what they were doing to the people waiting outside.

Beyond the wall were various pipes and conduits, and Ruby gulped at how close Weiss had come to hitting both of the above, as well as live power lines. She cast another glare at Ruby when she saw them before stabbing her sword's tip into the wall beyond and getting to work cutting through it as well.

“That's a really sharp sword,” Yang grunted as she dragged the section of wall across the room, finally leaning it against the door so that it would be harder to move through if the White Fang did get impatient.

“It uses Dust to create a series of angled forcefields,” Weiss explained. “The end result is an edge sharper than a physical blade could ever be… there!”

The next section couldn't be lowered carefully, as the intervening pipes made it impossible to drag back into their room. Instead Weiss put her foot on it and shoved, kicking it down into the room beyond, where it slammed onto the metal deck with an awful racket. The next room was another passenger cabin identical to the one they were standing in, with the door to the other corridor on the far side of the room.

Yang took the lead, squeezing through the dusty pipes, complaining under her breath at the lack of gravity in the two foot gap between walls. She was able to pull herself through, and Weiss followed after. Blake, who had taken the time to securely tie up the two terrorists who had been interrogating her went next, making a face as she became quite wet from the water floating in clouds inside the no gravity zone. Seeing that made Ruby very happy that she was still wearing her spacesuit.

When they were all in the next room Ruby got her gun ready, while Blake veered off to the side and grabbed a large empty gym bag sitting next to a shelf. Once she'd returned to the others Yang pressed the door open button and stormed out into the hall beyond, her shotgun firing a moment later.

“You,” a man rasped, his eyes opening wide as all four of them made it outside. His AURA had protected him from being killed by the point blank shotgun blast, but it had obviously knocked the wind out of him, and he was panting as he lay on the ground. He cowered away from Weiss in particular as they walked by, cradling his arm, which was in a cast for some reason. “I'll get you for this.”

“What was that?” Weiss asked sharply.

He swallowed thickly and looked away. Only Blake stopped walking, crouching down and taking his weapon, which Ruby recognized as her own machete. “I'll be taking this back, thanks.”

“Adam will never stop hunting you,” the man said.

Blake paused, a flicker of fear on her face, but she kept walking away. Ruby wanted to ask her what was wrong, but escaping a terrorist ship wasn't the best time for a heart to heart.

When they reached the main airlock Weiss pressed a button, not only opening the door but revealing open access to the boarding tube beyond. “Give me your guns,” Blake said, opening the bag she'd taken.

“Good thinking,” Weiss said, putting her unused pistol in the bag, and Yang casually tossed in her shotgun after engaging the safety.

Ruby hesitated, gripping her baby to her chest, until finally crumbling under the impatient stares of the others. Once it was folded up it fit easily, although that didn't stop Ruby from frowning. “Please be careful with her!”

“Her?” Weiss parroted.

Yang sighed. “Don't. Trust me… just don't worry about it.”

Before they could say anything else Ruby yelped as something slammed hard into her back. Gunshots echoed, and it suddenly occurred to Ruby that she'd been _shot_. Her AURA had held up to the pistol round easily, but she was going to have a bruise later.

“Come on!” Ruby shouted, running into the airlock and jumping forward. It was the first time she'd gone through the long zero gravity passage without help, and while she ended up twisting a bit in midair, and she was sure it was going to be rough when she reached the station, she at least managed to get to where she was going.

“We were waiting for you, you dolt!” Weiss objected, before grabbing Yang's arm and hauling her along. They had kicked off together for speed, but while Ruby had gotten somewhat used to floating along without gravity, Yang still managed to screw it up, sending the two of them careening into a wall partway down. “You brute! Stop squirming!”

Ruby reached the end, and as she'd feared she fell flat on her face when she reentered gravity. She quickly climbed to her feet, looking around worriedly, but while a lot of people were staring, including the guards, no one was doing anything. Not long after Weiss and Blake managed to wrangle Yang onto the station, with the blonde looking a little green from her long, slow tumble through the boarding tube.

“Can we never do that again,” Yang grumbled.

“Come on, we've got to move,” Blake said, pulling her along. Ruby looked back and saw a couple of White Fang at the boarding tube, and she hit the door close button before scurrying after the others.

Several of the guards, obviously able to tell something was wrong, began to move towards them, and everyone else was staying out of their way as they rushed down the length of the dock. “Hey, you four, halt!”

Ruby turned, biting her lip, not wanting to run away from the armed guards, but not wanting to get arrested by people that thought spacing you was a good punishment, either. Before she could decide what to do the door to the White Fang ship opened, and three Faunus exited, all armed with shotguns.

The first to see Ruby opened fire, but it was a pretty long shot and he missed, hitting someone standing near her, who fell to the ground limply. Ruby turned and ran, hoping that the person was okay, even as the guards turned and opened fire on the terrorists. A wild gunfight broke out behind them, and the dock descended into chaos as everyone tired to flee.

Ruby was pushed and jostled by the crowd, barely able to keep moving forward, until finally she reached the bazaar, a section of which connected to both the dock the White Fang had used, as well as their own. The room was so large that most people were simply going about their business despite the gunfight and the danger of it causing a sudden loss of atmosphere, so Ruby found herself unable to run anymore, and instead pulled off her helmet and tried to blend into the crowd.

She was most of the way across the room when a man stepped in front of her. He had messy gray hair, tiny glasses resting low on his nose, and was holding a fancy looking cane. He was dressed nicely, with a green suit that fit him well, and he offered her a friendly smile.

“Uh… hello?”

“Hello,” he said calmly. “Would you happen to have a moment to speak with me?”

Ruby looked back towards the entrance of the room she'd used. A group of guards were lined up in front of it with guns ready, although they weren't shooting. She kind of doubted that the White Fang could reach her in the bazaar, but that didn't mean she wanted to hang around.

“Don't worry, this will just take a moment,” he said.

“Okay,” Ruby said nervously, fiddling with her helmet. She really wished she still had Crescent Rose, but that would just get her in serious trouble.

“You have silver eyes… and from your space suit you came on a ship associated with the SDC,” the man said. “Tell me… are you Ruby Rose?”

Ruby stiffened, glancing around for a possible exit. “Um… who- who are you?”

He smiled slightly. “I'm sorry, I did not intend to make you nervous. My name is Ozpin, and I knew your mother.”

“You knew my mom?”

“Indeed,” he said. “She was a dear friend, and it grieved me to hear of her passing, and the retirement of a certain dusty old crow as well.”

“My uncle Qrow?” Ruby said. “Wait… how did you know them?”

“That is a story for another time, I think,” he said, stepping aside. “Your crew is probably concerned about you by now. After all, you just went to so much trouble reuniting one member who had been separated.”

Ruby opened and closed her mouth, wanting to get answers from the weird man, but he was right. They were planning on leaving port immediately to put as much distance between them and what had just happened as possible, and she really didn't want to worry Yang, or have Weiss scold her. With an awkward smile she scurried away from Ozpin, making her way through the crowded bazaar as quickly as possible.

A few minutes later she finally reached Port F, and she ran thorough the less crowded area to catch up to the rest of the crew, who were already at the door to the ship. “What took you so long!” Weiss snapped.

“Sorry, sorry!” Ruby cried. “I was- ahh!”

Ruby tripped over her own feet, still not completely used to standard gravity, and wearing something as weird as a spacesuit not helping her agility. She fell flat on her face, but other than her pride she didn't seem to be injured. “Ouch…”

“Are you okay?” Weiss said, suddenly crouched beside her with a hand on her shoulder.

Ruby looked up at her, blushing fiercely, the humiliation only growing as Yang guffawed loudly. “Guess I'm still not used to this gravity.”

Weiss huffed, but didn't say anything else as she helped her to her feet. “Come on, let's get out of here.”

The others went across first, with the injured Blake having to all but drag Yang along, and despite the help her sister managed to end up twisting around, and even bumped into the far doors, forcing Blake to scramble to hold on until she managed to get the airlock open and drag them both inside.

“I don't see why that brute laughed at you tripping when she's that bad without gravity,” Weiss huffed, making Ruby grin.

“Come on,” Ruby said, pulling on Weiss' arm, which had still been holding onto her after pulling her to her feet. “Let's get out of here.”

After spacewalking, or space getting dragged along like a suitcase by Weiss, the trip with her through the boarding tube was a piece of cake. Ruby was starting to actually enjoy the weird sensation of being weightless, and with a grin she decided she needed to practice more soon. She could turn off gravity in one of the unused cabins, and once she started to get the hang of it she could invite Weiss to give her some pointers…

She blushed fiercely, shaking her head at the thought. As exciting as the idea of spending time with Weiss was, flailing around in zero gravity probably wasn't the best plan to seduce somebody. Not that she was trying to seduce Weiss! Or wanted to! Or did she? She blushed even harder as she babbled in her own mind, until finally Weiss dragged her out of her mental loop by pulling her onto the ship.

“You alright, sis?” Yang said. “You're lookin' a little extra red, even for a ruby.”

Weiss tried to smack a hand against her forehead, forgetting that, unlike Ruby she hadn't taken her helmet off. She grimaced and shook out her hand, making Yang laugh again. Ruby decided to take charge before Weiss killed her sister, or at least tried for long enough for the White Fang to attack them again.

“Uh, guys?” she said. “Shouldn't we be, you know, leaving Beacon?”

Weiss had been about to open her mouth to scold Yang, but she took a deep breath instead and nodded. “You're right. Come on, let's get ready to launch.”

Five minutes later all four were seated on the bridge, with Weiss having taken the time to shed her spacesuit, while Yang had just taken her helmet off. Ruby busied herself with the engineering console, having already prepped the ship to launch before their mission, while behind her Weiss spoke with the port authority and Yang and Blake ran through the preflight checklist.

“You are cleared for launch,” the controller finally said. “Have a pleasant trip, and come back to Beacon soon.”

“Thank you,” Weiss said, cutting off the comm channel. “Yang?”

“One second,” she said, flipping a couple of switches. “Blake?”

“Readings normal,” the Faunus said. Despite her injuries, and having been taken prisoner so recently by people wanting to kill her or worse, she was as professional as ever as she did her part to get the ship ready to launch.

“Okay, ship's ready,” Yang said. “We clear to launch?”

“No,” Weiss said, pressing a couple of the buttons on her ship's Scroll. There was a distant clanging sound followed by a vibration. “We're unmoored… and the boom is out of the way. _Now_ we're clear.”

Yang pressed several buttons, and Ruby looked up to see Beacon panning away as Yang rotated the ship slightly with thrusters before engaging the main engines. She kept the power low when they did launch, not wanting to damage anything, but in a matter of minutes they were accelerating away at a full burn towards one of the system's many wormholes.

“How long until we're out of the system?” Weiss asked.

“We're about two hours from our wormhole,” Blake said.

“Keep an eye on the White Fang ship,” Weiss ordered. “As soon as we're gone turn the transponder back off.”

The next two hours were _long_. None of them wanted to leave the bridge, and after everything that had happened they really needed to clear the air and talk about things. Instead of doing anything productive all four sat in painful silence as they kept their eyes conspicuously on their screens. Ruby wanted to climb out of her skin, or at least escape the stifling atmosphere for the engine room, but if she did and the others got into a fight without her there to help break it up she'd never forgive herself. Instead she was stuck, stewing in her own anxieties while hoping that someone, anyone would just _end_ things.

“We're coming up on the wormhole now,” Yang said the first words in more than an hour. “Ready for jump in ten, nine…”

She trailed off, not feeling a need to do the full countdown. Ruby finally looked away from monitoring the engines to watch the stars outside the bridge until they melted away as they jumped through the wormhole. As ever the impossible, insane non-space outside the ship was beyond anything Ruby could put into words, even in her own head, and no matter how many times they did this she knew that she would never get sick of it.

All too soon it ended, space reverting to simple stars once again. Yang and Blake quickly worked out a course, until finally Yang turned in her seat to look at everyone. “Alright, course ready. We'll be making our next jump in twelve hours.”

Everyone just looked at each other awkwardly, like they hadn't planned what to say or do once they were safe. How could they not have planned what to say? Ruby had… done nothing but worry. But surely Weiss, Blake and Yang had thought of something!

Before anyone could say anything Ruby's stomach growled, and they all looked at her as she blushed. Yang chuckled after a moment. “Okay, how 'bout I get out of this spacesuit and cook some 'welcome back, Blake' grub. Sound good?”

There were murmurs of assent, and everyone rose and slowly walked out the door. Weiss went into her own room, which was closest to the bridge, and Yang and Blake did likewise. Ruby's room was between her sister and Weiss, and she sighed as she opened the door and went inside. That had been so awkward, and they'd be eating soon, which would just be even more awkward…

Ruby decided to take her mind off of it with a quick shower, and she relished the hot water. It was amazing how much wearing a spacesuit had made her sweat, and the battle had been even worse. She wasn't sure how to wash the suit she'd borrowed, but she really didn't want to think about what it would be like if it couldn't be sanitized. It smelled pretty funky, and that was with just one quick use.

The intercom crackled. “Food's almost done. Get your butts down here.”

Ruby jogged to the door, her reservations fading in the face of a hot meal. She jumped right out, bumping into Weiss and almost taking them both the ground. Instead she found Weiss's arms wrapped around her waist, supporting her. Apparently Weiss had decided to do the same thing she had, as her hair was wet as well, and she smelled amazing. Actually, she always smelled pretty amazing, and Ruby realized she was the all time worst as she zoned out thinking about how her captain smelled.

“Watch where you're going, you dolt!” Weiss scolded her, although she kept her arms around her.

“S-sorry, Weiss,” Ruby said, blushing brightly.

Weiss rolled her eyes and sighed as she helped Ruby find her footing. “Come on, let's go get some food and get… _this_ over with.”

Ruby nodded. “Yeah… you know Blake did a great job getting us going again.”

“Mmhmm,” Weiss hummed.

“I mean, you know, she went from prisoner to co-pilot in, like, no time at all! Just, she's really impressive, you know?”

“Mmhmm.”

“We just couldn't ask for a better crew member, could we,” she babbled on brightly. “Right?”

“Ruby… I already want Blake on the crew,” Weiss said, finally looking at her. “I wouldn't have been so willing to retrieve her if I didn't want her here.”

“Good,” Ruby said with a sigh. “That's good.”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “It's not going to be easy, but… I guess there's a lot of bad blood from both our sides. It's not going to be fast, but we have plenty of time to work things out before we reach Vale.”


	20. Rapport

Weiss kept her hands wrapped around her simple white coffee cup, warming them with the steaming tea that filled it. She was normally a coffee person, but the occasional change was nice, and she had to admit that Blake brewed a great pot of tea. In the month since they'd left Beacon they'd made an effort to sit down like this weekly, and she had come to enjoy the soothing drinks and quiet talks.

If you had told her six months before that she would have regular tea parties with a former member of the White Fang she never would've believed it. Frankly, she couldn't even imagine spending time with a Faunus, even one who didn't have a history of terrorism. It was easy to think of Blake as not just a person, but a reliable crew member, and even perhaps a real friend, but it had taken longer than she wanted to admit to stop thinking of the Faunus woman as something less than she was deep down. It was a flaw that she was ashamed to admit, even in the quiet of her own thoughts.

Of course, Blake probably felt similarly about her. She was a Schnee after all, and six months before she was still part of the SDC, even if she didn't hold any real power. Her life had changed so much, and while she wished that the ship was in better shape and less dingy, she wouldn't trade her new life for anything.

“I think you'd like it,” Blake said, finishing her anecdote about a novel she'd read.

Weiss had only been half listening, too lost in her own thoughts about how her life was unfolding to follow it more closely. Still, even if her social skills were a bit limited in some areas, if she was good at anything it was making small talk and feigning interest, and this was easier than it had been doing similar at parties, since she actually would read the book Blake was speaking about. “I'll have to read it then. Do you have a copy?”

Blake smiled slightly. “I'll send it to your scroll later.”

Weiss nodded, sipping her tea with a sigh. As pleasant as spending time with Blake this way was, and as excellent as it had been for making them feel more comfortable with each other, she couldn't help feeling like things had plateaued. How much closer could they get making small talk?

When Blake didn't say anything for a long moment Weiss decided to take the plunge. “What is your family like? Or… do you have one?”

There was a long, long pause, as Blake obviously hadn't been expecting that question. “Why do you want to know?”

Weiss set her cup down. “You plotted the longest, most round about path possible between Beacon and Vale, but we're still only a few more jumps from getting there. When we do… when we do you'll need to decide. Do you want to stay on my crew, or do you want to go your own way? Getting together and having tea's made this trip more pleasant, but if you want to stay on longer then we need to do more than that.”

Blake took a long sip of her tea, before sighing and setting her cup down as well. “Do you want me on board? Really?”

Weiss almost gave a quick answer, but the seriousness Blake had asked her question with demanded a real answer. “I do. I want to know more about you, though. When my grandfather owned this ship his crew weren't just people being paid to do a job; his crew was a family. I want that. I want to trust you, not just to navigate the ship, but just… period.”

“When we first met… I hated you,” Blake said. “I'd hated your family since I was little, and I didn't even think about giving you a chance. You weren't a person to me; you just this… amorphous evil that had suddenly been given a face.”

“To be fair, if I had met you without the bow covering your ears, I would've assumed the worst,” Weiss said. “All my life I'd been raised to look down on Faunus, and to assume they want to hurt me. Until I met you I never really had a chance to get to know a Faunus.”

“So why do you want to know about my family?” Blake asked.

Weiss took the time to sip her drink again, which was finally cool enough to do so comfortably. “I may no longer be welcomed by my family, but they made me who I am. This ship was my grandfather's, and I'd like to think that I'm following in his footsteps, and the Dust in its hold was taken from my family's mines. I chose to do this to make a new life for myself, to find out who I really am, but I'm still the person the Schnee name made me.”

Blake stared into her tea for a long time without moving, her amber eyes distant. Weiss wasn't sure if she was ever actually going to say anything, when she finally broke the silence that had fallen over the mess. “My father and mother were… _are_ activists. Early members of the White Fang, from when it was still largely peaceful. They quit the movement to settle down and try a different path when the violence began to escalate.”

“What are they like?” Weiss asked.

Blake smiled sadly. “My father is huge. Kinda scary looking, but he's… gentle. The only time he ever really yelled at me was when I wanted to stay with the White Fang despite what they were doing. He realized it was just going to get worse, but I was so sure of… everything. Too sure to listen to him.

“My mother… she's just as driven as my father. He might've been the leader of his faction of the White Fang, but she was right there beside him every step of the way, trying to make the world a better place. And I was right beside them as a child. I attended every meeting, every protest, every demonstration… I was raised by the Faunus Rights Movement.”

The two were so wrapped up in the private conversation that when the iris valve door to the cargo hold opened they both jumped, and in Weiss' case, spilled a little tea, although it was at least no longer painfully hot. They looked over, wide eyed at Ruby, who blinked in confusion. “What's up?”

“Nothing,” Weiss said sharply. “What are you doing?”

“Getting a snack,” Ruby said, hesitating at the door. “Do, uh… do you want me to leave?”

“No,” Blake said. “We were just talking. Come in.”

Ruby carefully edged into the room, watching them both nervously. Weiss smiled at the dolt, relaxing as she watched her start to dig through cabinets looking for something to snack on. “Don't eat too much; it isn't long until dinner.”

“I won't,” Ruby pouted.

Weiss had grown even closer to Ruby over the previous month, although no progress had been made towards a romantic relationship. Weiss knew she was dragging her feet, although Ruby wasn't doing anything either, and that made her worry sometimes that her feelings weren't reciprocated. Still, even with her anxieties, it was getting easier to accept her feelings and to think about confessing them to Ruby as they grew ever closer as friends. If she was rejected she risked losing a friend and making the ship uncomfortable, but she was growing less frightened of being used and then dumped as she trusted Ruby more and more.

Weiss managed to pull her eyes away from watching Ruby, only to see Blake smirking at her, no doubt amused at Weiss's obvious feelings. She rolled her eyes and continued the conversation. “So where are your parents now?”

Blake's smile dropped immediately, and she sighed. “They live on Menagerie. I… haven't contacted them since I left home.”

“You haven't talked to them?!” Ruby gasped, turning to face them.

“No,” Blake said. “They didn't approve of my still being with the White Fang… and I only recently left the group. I… it's been a long time, I'm not sure if they would even want to speak to me anymore.”

“Of course they do!” Ruby said. “They're your family!”

Weiss looked down into her half empty teacup at those words. Even besides Ruby growing up without much money on a tiny colony world, their childhoods couldn't be more different. Weiss couldn't imagine being so certain that parents love their children, as it was something she'd never experienced. She certainly never planned to contact her's again, unless she managed to accrue enough wealth and power to attempt a hostile takeover of the SDC.

“I… it's complicated,” Blake said. “We both said some harsh things, and now… I don't know if I can face them.”

Ruby walked over and gently put a hand on her shoulder. “My mother… she died when I was young. Don't make the mistake of never making up with them. They might not be around forever, and if you don't make things right you'll always regret it.”

“I'll… I'll think about it,” Blake said quietly.

Ruby returned to the counter when the microwave dinged, and a few moments later she sat down with a cup of hot cocoa and some crackers with a grainy faux-chocolate spread on them. It wasn't terribly appetizing, but the once full pantry was getting very thin. Not having restocked at Beacon or Patch, or stopped anywhere else since, the ship was more than two months from supply. Yang had been digging deep to find anything edible, and it wasn't going to be much longer before they were forced to eat nothing but rations.

“So what were you talking about?” Ruby asked.

“Family,” Blake said.

“Ah...” Ruby hummed, before biting her lip and fiddling with her fingers nervously.

Blake smirked. “What is it?”

Ruby jumped. “Um… well… I don't want to say something offensive.”

“I know,” Blake smiled. “That's why I won't hold your questions against you.”

“I've never met a Faunus except you… and we didn't really learn much about them in school,” Ruby said, fidgeting slightly. “I know there was something about where they came from, but…”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “You really should've paid attention in class.”

“But _Weiss_ ,” Ruby whined. “School was boring! Besides, I spent all my time fiddling with machines and stuff instead, and look where I am now! Score one for hobbies over textbooks!”

Weiss scoffed. “Maybe I should add a written employment test. If you're going to be working on my ship's power plant you should be able to employ Maxwell's equations.”

“Who?”

Weiss put her head in her hands, and Blake chuckled. “You want to know how Faunus came to be?”

“Yeah,” Ruby murmured. “If you… if you don't mind me asking.”

“It's fine,” Blake said. “Almost two centuries ago the technology to alter human genetics finally came into its own. There had been a lot of pushback against meddling with human DNA, but some colonies found that it was easier to tweak their genes instead of the environment, and a generation later the idea was commonplace enough on some of the colony worlds that no one objected to more… intense experimentation.

“Some groups tried to claim that genetically altered people weren't human, and so they were exempt from human rights. The Stellar Alliance shut that down, and laws were created enshrining anyone with human DNA as being human. Things were fine for a while, until Fall Biogenetics had an idea. They took genes from a wide variety of animals, and they created life from scratch, the DNA designed to mimic humanity's, but without directly using human genes.

“The result were Faunus. We have animal features and superior night vision, but we're actually so close to humanity that we're interfertile, with the children having an equal chance of being human or another Faunus. Despite that, we had no actual human DNA at all, which means that there was a loophole in the letter of the law. Faunus didn't have human rights, and the Stellar Alliance had weakened enough by that point that they were unable to update the laws to reflect the new reality.”

“So… Faunus weren't considered people?” Ruby asked.

“They still aren't in some places,” Blake said darkly. “A few megacorporations have continued to exploit the Faunus for slave labor, or for experimental purposes. Without the Stellar Alliance no one is around to enforce laws, except for the Navy, and they normally stay out of planetary affairs… and they're in the pockets of the wealthy Atlesian elite, anyway.”

“Things aren't the way they used to be,” Weiss said tightly. “I know terrible things still happen on tiny worlds, or where no one is watching, but even Atlas legally considers Faunus people, and if the Navy is good at anything it's paying attention to the letter of the law.”

Blake pursed her lips for a moment. “And every loophole. The SDC-”

“Wait!” Ruby interjected. “Wait, please. Weiss isn't part of the SDC anymore, remember? And that goes for you too, Weiss. You don't have to fight about this.”

Weiss sighed and looked down at her nearly empty teacup. It was barely warm anymore, but she hated to waste it, especially with how little tea they had left. After taking a long sip she sighed and slumped just a little in her seat. “Most Dust mining takes place on asteroids these days, and the richest veins remaining are in uninhabited systems off the major space lanes, places that haven't been truly explored until our prospectors checked them. The workers have to be shipped in, and they can only return on SDC ships. I don't _know_ that they're mistreated, but… my father is not a kind man.”

“He isn't,” Blake said bluntly, but after a long stare from Ruby she sighed. “I know you aren't your father, and you had no power at the SDC. It's not fair to be angry at you.”

“From my experience the White Fang has always chosen convenient targets for their wrath rather than going after those truly responsible,” Weiss said.

“Weiss, Blake isn't in the White Fang anymore,” Ruby said, giving her a look like a kicked puppy. As much as she hated to back down and apologize to anyone, there was no way she could resist that look for more than a few seconds.

“You're right,” Weiss said. “I'm sorry.”

“I'm sorry, too,” Blake said. “You know, whenever we decide to discuss anything difficult we should have Ruby act as referee.”

“If she were in the Assembly I doubt the Stellar Alliance would've collapsed,” Weiss agreed, making Ruby blush and stuff her mouth with her faux-chocolate covered crackers, causing them both to chuckle.

“So how did… all this White Fang stuff get started?” Ruby asked.

“Humans were using the Faunus as slave labor,” Blake said. “With the Stellar Alliance breaking down no one was willing to help us, so Faunus decided to help themselves. On more civilized worlds the common people hated the idea of slavery, and once we demonstrated that we were people, that we had feelings and deserved to make our own choices the humans sided with us. The only reason they hadn't objected in the first place was corporate propaganda that said we wanted to work… that we didn't have the capacity for freedom.”

“Even Atlas banned Faunus exploitation without too much fuss, and its government basically _is_ the megacorps,” Weiss said. “There was some resentment and push back, and a growing human supremacist movement to segregate or deport the Faunus from Atlas that made significant strides, but slavery was forbidden.”

Blake's face tightened. “Setting aside how awful laws like that and similar are, and how widespread they still are, the biggest problems were away from the more civilized worlds. The SDC today might dress up what they do by paying their workers a pittance before taking the money back for food and shelter, but for years asteroid mines were worked by literal slaves, and countless Faunus were made in labs to test everything from medical advances to cosmetics. On many worlds it was illegal for an animal to be subjected to what Faunus were forced to go through just hours away by starship.

“For most humans, it was out of sight and out of mind. They passed laws on planets from Vale to Vacuo, but our people still suffered where no one was paying attention. If we kept waiting… how many people had to die before anything got done? More and more violent methods were being used, as the White Fang began to transition from protestors to liberators to freedom fighters.”

“And you… _they_ didn't stop there,” Weiss said darkly. “They decided that humans had to suffer, and just hurting the people directly responsible for the oppression was too difficult. After all, politicians and CEOs tended to be well protected. But if you don't care about killing a thousand innocent humans for the chance to bomb one family member of a businessman, then you can get your revenge. For some of them killing uninvolved humans became a feature rather than a cost.”

Weiss' words hung heavy in the air, and as much as it visibly pained Blake she couldn't really refute them. The White Fang had earned its reputation as terrorists a thousand times over, and even if the cause they were fighting for was just that didn't make their actions right.

The comm crackled, and Yang's boisterous voice broke the tense atmosphere. “Hey, everybody? I think you should come to the bridge.”

They exchanged looks, and a moment later all three were heading quickly through the main ship's corridor to see what was going on. They reached the bridge in moments, and Weiss was relieved to see nothing with her eyes, although that wasn't surprising. Space was _huge_ , and at the speeds they travelled, anything they could see they would reach very quickly.

“What's the situation?” Weiss asked, settling into her captain's chair and grabbing the special ship's Scroll.

“I'm getting an S.O.S.,” Yang said.

“Out here?” Blake asked. “I took us on the least trafficked route possible.”

“Maybe someone else decided to do the same thing,” Yang said with a shrug.

Weiss pulled up the message, which was audio only. It had quite a bit of interference, and had the monotonous quality of a computer generated voice. “This is the Atlas Naval Research Ship _Marionette_. We are badly damaged and require assistance. This is the-”

Weiss shut off the short message as it began to loop. Yang spun in her chair to face Weiss, raising an eyebrow. “Short message.”

Weiss hummed in agreement. “The ship may be thoroughly wrecked; if there are no survivors it could explain the short automated message.”

“So… what do we do?” Ruby asked.

“It could be a trap,” Blake said. “Pirates sometimes play distress signals to lure in ships so they can capture them.”

“Out here?” Yang asked. “You said it yourself; we're in the middle of nowhere. You'd be a pretty desperate pirate to try to setup a trap in this system.”

“I agree with Yang,” Weiss said, making a face at her own words. “This isn't likely to be a trap, so… we have to help them. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we abandoned a helpless ship.”


	21. Ghost Ship

The _Marionette_ was on the far side of the star system from where they'd entered, floating in the debris disk far away from the weak light of the red dwarf star. The system had few planets and nothing of note or particular value, and while it was only a few jumps from Vale, its only other wormhole led through a meandering path of other worthless systems far away from any colony worlds. It was a useless, meaningless star system, and one that normally wouldn't attract more than a few ships a year swiftly passing through.

For some reason the _Marionette_ wasn't close to either wormhole. It was almost as far from them as a ship could get and still be within the orbit of the dull red star, sitting near an icy mass of frozen methane and ammonia that might've been a comet if its orbit was more eccentric. The distance meant that they had plenty of time to look for a possible trap, but they couldn't find anything on the sensors. It was simply floating dead in space, far enough away that they could barely see it for hours even with their telescopic cameras on maximum zoom.

It was more than a day later when they finally gathered on the bridge once again with the dark, icy mass of the asteroid the ship was floating near dimly visible with the naked eye through the bridge's window. Weiss had the enhanced camera view open on her scroll, with Ruby leaning over her shoulder to look at it.

“Looks like a standard scout ship,” Ruby said.

Weiss decided to take her word for it, since she had no idea what such a thing should look like. As with all naval ships, it managed to have a sleek, beautiful aesthetic despite its otherwise practical design. It had a conical nose which swept back into a long cylinder, with three stubby wing-like protrusions at the back that housed engines, one along the top, and two just below the middle. It was painted in shades of dark and light gray, with dull orange portholes symmetrically placed at various points.

“What do you know about them?” Weiss asked.

Ruby shrugged. “Not a lot. It's a bit bigger than us, made for about twenty people to spend a year or so out of port. They go looking for new worldsand, uh, things, but they've got really good sensors too, so some people think they do spy stuff.”

“We are close to Vale,” Blake said.

“We're also pretty close to the frontier,” Yang said. “If they wanted to avoid inhabited planets they could've come this way… maybe.”

“Well, something went wrong,” Weiss said. “Do you see any damage?"

“No,” Blake said. “Infrared shows the ship's still warm, so they aren't shut down. No response to any hails, and they don't seem to have any active sensors on.”

“I don't like this,” Yang said.

“I don't either,” Weiss agreed. “Still, if it isn't shut down someone might be alive.”

“Yeah, we can't just leave someone in trouble!” Ruby said. “It's the code of the sea. Er… space? Code of the something, probably.”

Weiss put a hand over her eyes, part exasperated but mostly amused by Ruby's antics. Any doubts she might've had about her feelings were easily laid to rest by how she actually enjoyed the dolt's… doltishness. “However it might've been worded, Ruby's right. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left someone to die our here. If a ship didn't have a reason to come this way it might be months before anyone else noticed the distress signal.”

“Well, I can pull alongside… that the airlock near the fins in back?” Yang asked.

“Yeah, looks like it,” Ruby said.

A few minutes later they were in position, Yang using the control stick to manually guide the ship close enough, before letting the computer take over to shift them the last few feet to line up the airlocks exactly. The boarding tube was, like everything on the _Myrtenaster_ , an older model, which only allowed a small leeway to line it up. Still, it wasn't long before the ship shook slightly as they made contact.

“Can you get anything from the computer connection?” Weiss asked.

Blake pressed a few buttons, activating the computer link in the boarding tube before humming slightly. “Well, they're a military ship, so it isn't saying much, but it's claiming that the ship has a breathable atmosphere in all compartments. No other status reports.”

“I guess we'll have to check it out ourselves, then,” Weiss said, standing and adjusting her sword. She'd brought it with her, expecting to be going across.

Ruby had her rifle and Blake her machete, but Weiss took a moment to retrieve a pistol for herself and Blake, and a shotgun for Yang from the locker before they left the bridge. The primary airlock was close by, so a moment later they were all in it as it cycled, the sensors verifying that the air was clean of any dangerous contaminants and had the proper mix for breathing before the outer door opened.

“Everyone ready?” Weiss asked. She was feeling a little nervous, but she did her best to hide it from her crew.

“Should we get spacesuits?” Ruby asked.

Weiss shook her head. “Their computer isn't reporting a quarantine or hull breach, and they'd only slow us down. Even my tailored thin suit isn't as easy to move in as normal clothing.”

Yang snorted. “You're wearing a skirt and heels, princess."

“Excuse you!” Weiss said. “There's nothing wrong with wearing a skirt!”

“Yeah!” Ruby agreed, and the two exchanged a low five.

Yang rolled her eyes while Blake chuckled. “Come on… let's get this part over with.”

Ruby went first, her face determined as she leapt out into the boarding tube. Weiss had helped her learn to move around in zero gravity over the previous month in one of the empty passenger cabins, and while she missed her mark a little and had to relaunch herself with the aid of a handhold, she didn't have too much trouble reaching the _Marionette_.

Yang, on the other hand, hadn't bothered learning, and she was glaring at the boarding tube like it had personally wronged her. Weiss smirked slightly, before jumping in, moving fast enough to catch up to Ruby, grabbing onto a handhold near the other ship's door, which Ruby started examining.

“Can you get it open?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said after a moment, pushing a couple of buttons on the control panel. The door then hissed open, revealing the airlock, which is was in good condition. “I guess it was setup to let anyone open it.”

Weiss shrugged. “Maybe that's part of the emergency protocol? They sent out a distress signal after all.”

They climbed into the ship, easily settling back into gravity, although Ruby still did so a little awkwardly. They then turned around and waited, as Blake helped Yang cross the gap. Once they were all in the airlock Ruby pressed a few more buttons, closing the outer doors and letting the airlock cycle the air, preventing any possible contaminants from reaching the naval ship.

When the airlock doors opened the first thing Weiss noticed was a heavy, metallic scent that was mildly unpleasant, but not so strong that it was a sign of the life support systems breaking down and failing to properly scrub the air. The lights were out, however, but whether it was because the ship was damaged somehow or because someone had simply turned them off Weiss couldn't say. It was still and quiet however, even quieter than the _Myrtenaster_ had been before she'd invited her rambunctious crew on board.

“Creepy,” Yang whispered.

Ruby fumbled at her belt for a moment, before coming up with a small but bright flashlight, shining it around the hall before stepping out into it. Weiss followed, staying close to her, pulling out her personal Scroll and setting it to light mode. It wasn't as good as a real flashlight, but she didn't have one so it would have to do.

The hall stretched in both directions, with a number of doors along it. She didn't know anything about scout ships, but she guessed that this wasn't the only major corridor, as they weren't very deep into the vessel, and designers tended to make them as symmetrical as possible. She saw nothing of interest, however, simply a few doors in an otherwise clean, empty hall.

“What's that?” Blake asked, pointing into the darkness.

Ruby and her both focused their lights in that direction, but they couldn't see anything. “What?” Ruby asked.

“I'm not sure… we should probably check it out,” Blake said.

Yang and Blake both pulled out small lights of their own, making Weiss frown at her own lack of preparation, before following Blake, who had taken the lead, down the corridor. Ahead was a slight bend, where the ship's cylindrical body began to narrow into its conical front, the hall curving to match the change. Shortly before the bend she could see a large, dark patch on the deck, some of whatever it was covering the wall as well, and more in a path leading around the bend.

The closer they came the more Blake slowed, until she pulled out her pistol and stalked forward like a predator, her steps completely silent on the metal decking. Yang followed after, shockingly quietly for her size and general lack of subtlety, but that still left herself and Ruby clomping along. Weiss had never really tried to sneak around before, and the platform heel of her boots, while good for her self esteem by making her stand a little taller than Ruby, was also bad for her ability to walk quietly.

When they reached the site Yang stood guard, her shotgun up as she stared at the corner, while Blake crouched down and prodded at the dark patch with a bit of spare cloth she'd pulled from somewhere. “It's a little tacky, but mostly dried.”

“So it's been a while,” Yang said quietly. “But not _that_ long.”

“What is it?” Weiss asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Blood,” Ruby explained. “That's blood, Weiss.”

Weiss's jaw worked, trying to make words but unable to get out a sound. She stared wide eyed down at the large, dark stain, trying to process what she was seeing. If you'd asked her what she was looking at she would've guess someone had spilled oil all over the wall and floor, and then just dragged the can away rather than carry it properly. How could the dark mess covering the area be blood. _Why_ would there be a giant _bloodstain_ on the wall of the ship?

“Weiss… breathe,” Ruby said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She flinched away from the contact for a moment, not used to someone touching her, but a moment later she realized who it was and leaned into the contact. “It'll be okay.”

“How can it be okay,” Weiss hissed, before swallowing. “That's… that's so much blood.”

Blake looked back at her for a moment, her eyes lambent eyes devoid of any expression, before standing, her gun at the ready. “I doubt whoever was dragged away survived. So do we press on and find out what happened, or do we go back to our ship?”

“We can't just leave!” Ruby objected a little loudly, before wincing and continuing in a near whisper. “People are in trouble… you said the blood wasn't all the way dry, right? Someone is probably still alive on here.”

“That's what I'm concerned about,” Yang said. “Whoever is alive is probably the killer.”

“Maybe… maybe there was an accident,” Ruby offered. “Maybe they were being taken to the medical bay?”

“With this much blood?” Blake asked. “It had a chance to pool for a while, so the body laid down for a bit before they were dragged away. I doubt they were still alive.”

“They didn't clean anything up, though, so it's not like they were covering up a crime,” Ruby argued. “Maybe they didn't know how bad it was, or maybe they were just trying to get the body ready for burial.”

“I want to know why the hell the lights aren't on,” Yang scowled. “Shouldn't there be some emergency lights at least? Why the hell is it so dark?”

“It's like something out of a horror movie,” Ruby said, shining her light around. “This would be right when the Grimm show up and attacks.”

Weiss swallowed thickly, her hand gripping her sword hilt so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She'd never watched many movies, and she'd had no interest in the horror genre, but even she was familiar with the stories of the Grimm, monsters from deep space that killed people on remote colonies or isolated ships along the frontier. It was hard to think of many places more remote and isolated than a scout ship in a rarely trafficked system.

Blake snorted disdainfully. “Grimm, really? There are enough evil people in the universe; we don't need to make up fairytale monsters to be our villains.”

“So what do you think happened?” Ruby asked.

“I'm with Yang about the lights,” Blake said after a moment. “Even if there was an accident the emergency lighting should still be on; the last of the lights should work even after the artificial gravity plating gives out and the air stops being recycled. Everything we've seen has been working just fine except the lights.”

“So you think someone did this intentionally?” Weiss asked, clenching her other fist to try to keep it from shaking. Even invading the White Fang ship hadn't been this frightening; then she'd been so busy she hadn't had a chance to think about how dangerous it was. The silent, dark ship offered far more room for her imagination to run wild.

“If someone turned off the light… then someone might be alive,” Ruby said. “We should at least check… what if the survivors took their friend away to be buried? Maybe the whole thing is over and they're huddled up waiting for rescue. Maybe they turned off the lights to save power since they don't know how long they'll be waiting for a ship to come save them.”

“Or maybe someone's waiting to kill us in the dark,” Blake said dryly.

“What do you think captain?” Yang asked, looking at Weiss. “Do we stay or do we go?”

Weiss swallowed thickly, looking down at the pool of blood, unable to meet Yang's bold gaze. She didn't want to have to decide this. She knew about trading, about the paperwork and ledgers of running a ship day to day, about managing teams and giving directives to those qualified to make decisions. She loved the title of captain, but in moments like this she was reminded that the captain wasn't just a CEO or business executive. It was the leader of a group of people all alone in the great, vast darkness of space.

Weiss wasn't sure if she was capable of making those decisions. It was easier dreaming about following in her grandfather's footsteps than actually walking in them. Had he ever been this frightened, unsure of what to do, and knowing that the longer he hesitated the more his crew would lose respect for him? Had he ever had a crew mutiny on him like she already had? Had he ever been in this much danger, with the people he cared about's lives on the line based upon what call he made?

Or had he ever been stranded, lost and alone in the darkness at the edge of a star system, desperately hoping for rescue? If it was Ruby and Blake and Yang trapped in some compartment on the _Myrtenaster_ , hoping for salvation, would she want some strange ship to take a risk if it meant they could be saved? Could she do any less for the crew of the _Marionette_ , just because it was her friends on the line if she made the wrong call?

Raising her chin defiantly Weiss finally made her decision. “I won't abandon them without at least checking first. We need to be careful, but… I couldn't live with myself if we left survivors without at least trying to rescue anyone.”

Yang nodded, satisfied, and while Blake looked dubious she didn't object to the plan. Ruby, on the other hand, beamed at her, obviously very happy with her decision. Weiss just hoped that she wouldn't come to regret her choice.

Weiss drew her sword, and Blake took point while Yang dropped back for a rear guard. They moved as quietly as they could, although the panning flashlights gave away their position to anyone watching as they followed the blood trail. It ended at a door, and after a few moments to look around, Blake pushed the door open button.

The first thing to hit Weiss was the smell. The stench of rot combined with the smell of blood, along with other, harder to identify odors that made her gag and nearly vomit. Her attempt to maintain control of her stomach failed when she saw the contents of the room, and only after losing her breakfast did she steel herself for a second look, finally managing to catalogue its contents.

There were more than a dozen bodies, all laid out carefully in rows. The damage to them was catastrophic, most torn apart, others appearing to be partially eaten. Weiss had trouble processing what she was seeing, only a sense of numbed shock keeping her from screaming.

“I… I didn't think it was _really_ Grimm,” Ruby murmured.

Blake stepped into the room, carefully avoiding as much blood and viscera as she could, until she crouched beside the first body, looking at it carefully. “What are you doing?” Yang asked.

“Trying to figure out what happened,” Blake said, her voice a dispassionate monotone. Weiss shuddered, suspecting that her dissociation was what had allowed her to be a part of the White Fang.

After a few moment she moved on to other bodies, checking several more, before carefully backing out of the room. When she reached the hall she pressed the door closed button, and looked around, her cat ears swiveling as she listened for anything she could hear.

“What did you find?” Weiss asked after a long moment.

“Whatever did that wasn't human or Faunus,” Blake said. “Those were definitely bite marks, from some kind of large predatory animal.”

“This is a scout ship,” Ruby said. “Maybe they picked up some kinda sample and it got loose?”

“Yeah, I think we've seen enough,” Yang said. “If there are any survivors they'd've heard the ships dock and should be going to the airlock. And if there isn't, that means whatever's running loose in here killed off a whole Navy crew. Either way, I think we've looked enough.”

“Agreed,” Weiss said tightly.

No one objected, and they quickly moved down the hall, everyone keeping their eyes open and weapons ready in case something attacked them from the dark. Fortunately nothing like that happened, and they reached the airlock without any difficulties. It was only after passing through both ends and returning safely to the _Myrtenaster_ that everyone finally relaxed.

“Let's get out of here,” Weiss said, hitting the door open button for the bridge. “When we reach Vale we can send a courier drone with a message about the ship to the Navy.”

Yang and Blake sat down at the front of the bridge, and Ruby at her usual seat. Weiss looked out the large window at the stars, trying to relax, until Yang cursed. “What is it?”

“Something's wrong with the computer,” Yang said, pressing more buttons before slamming a fist down on her chair arm. “Damn it! We're stuck!”


	22. Hijack

Ruby had always been an anxious person. She hated being at the center of attention, and she had always thought that people standing over her shoulder while she worked was the worst thing. She had found a new worst, however, and that was the entire crew of her ship standing over her shoulder, desperately hoping she could figure out _some way_ to get the trapped ship moving again.

Finally, after wrestling with the system for what felt like forever, she slumped. “I'm sorry… maybe if I was better with computers… I just… I don't know how to fix it.”

“What happened?” Weiss demanded.

Ruby flinched, feeling like the question was an attack. She then felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, and looking up nervously she saw Weiss giving her a reassuring smile. Well, Ruby thought it was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile. She looked stiff and even more uncomfortable than Ruby had felt while they'd been looking over her shoulder, but she relaxed anyway and offered a more natural smile in return. Weiss' sharp tone was just the way she normally talked, and after so long traveling together Ruby knew that.

“I think… when we connected, the other ship started hacking us,” Ruby said. “They must've jammed our comms so we didn't get any warnings about it, and by the time we got back here it was already over.”

“But couldn't we just, I dunno, reboot the computer or something?” Yang asked.

“No… that's not enough,” Ruby sighed. “Even the live backups got overwritten. The only way to fix this from here would be to reformat the hard drives; start over from scratch.”

“So why not do that?” Blake asked.

“We're… kinda missing the install drives,” Ruby said. “I guess they got lost somewhere? I mean, this ship is kinda old, and the computers are pretty outdated. So… yeah. I doubt we can even _find_ replacements, so… this is gonna be a problem getting fixed.”

“You said 'from here',” Blake said.

“Huh?”

“You said that the only way to 'fix it from here' was to reformat the hard drives,” Blake pointed out. “How else can we fix it?”

“Well, the other ship had someone hack us, right?” Ruby said. “So maybe someone over there can _un_ hack us. Or we can use their computers to fix it at least.”

“So we have to go back over there?” Weiss asked grimly.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “Maybe whatever did all that… bad stuff is dead? I mean, somebody hacked us. So if no one was alive then who did it? And if there's a scary monster still killing everybody then who could've been hacking us?”

“ _Why_ were they hacking us?” Blake asked rhetorically. “Why keep us here if they weren't going to show up?”

“Maybe they want to steal our ship,” Weiss said, pressing her lips together firmly. “If we go over there to find out what happened they can come here and take it.”

“That's why we locked the door,” Yang pointed out.

Ruby shook her head. “The computer runs the locks. Since they have the computer now… they're the ones who can unlock them. The only reason we can do _anything_ now is they're letting us. They could've turned off life support, or the gravity, or turned the lights and power off or locked the doors, or… well, things are pretty bad right now.”

“So we can't all go over there,” Blake said. “Someone… or someones needs to stay here in case they try to hijack us.”

“I need to go,” Ruby said, stomach churning with a strange mix of excitement and fear. “I'm the best bet to get things fixed.”

“I'll go with you then,” Yang said, raising her metal fist. “Nobody's gonna mess with my little sister if I have anything to say about it.”

“No!” Ruby shouted, flinching when she realized how shocked everyone was at how she'd said it. She didn't want Yang to change into something this dangerous to try to protect her, not after she'd already lost an arm saving her. “No, I… um, you should stay here and guard the ship. If they're planning to hijack us then you're in more danger than I'd be! They'd come here instead, so… you should guard here.”

Yang was frowning, obviously not sure what to make of her sudden rejection. “Ruby?”

“I can go with her,” Weiss said.

“Do you really think you can fight off a giant monster?” Yang demanded. “You freaked out when you saw some blood.”

“She knows how to fight,” Blake said.

Weiss straightened her back and raised her chin defiantly. “Of course I can! I've been trained with a sword for years, and guns aren't overly complicated! Besides, an animal won't have an AURA, so my Dust Blade will be much more effective.”

Yang looked like she wanted to argue, but even she could see when she'd put her foot in her mouth with Weiss. Finally backing down, Yang nodded. “Fine. I'll guard the ship.”

“We'll guard the ship,” Blake said.

“You should go with them,” Yang said.

Blake shook her head. “Ruby's right. If this is a hijacking they'll come here in force. We should both be here in case something happens. Or in case someone already slipped on board before we got back.”

“Fine,” Yang said, her expression pinched. “Be careful… and if one hair on Ruby's head is scratched there'll be a new definition of 'Schnee Dust'.”

They quickly got ready to go again, Ruby checking her rifle before following Weiss to the airlock. Before she could step through Yang pulled her into a hug from behind.

“I don't know what's wrong,” Yang murmured. “We'll talk about it later just… be safe, please? You mean the world to me, sis.”

Ruby looked down at the mechanical arm, her real one lost so long ago protecting her. “You too… I love you so much.”

“You're the best little sister in the world,” Yang said, before ruffling her hair. “Now go out there and save the ship… and see about sealing the deal with ol' cap'n icicle-up-her-butt.”

“Wh-what?” Ruby stammered, turning red.

“What, did you think you two were subtle?” Yang chuckled. “Please, you've been eye-fucking for _weeks_ now. Just grab her and give her a kiss already.”

“Shut up,” Ruby grumbled, elbowing Yang (which hurt her much more than her sister) and then fixing her hair. “Like you haven't been doing the same with Blake.”

“That just shows I've got taste,” Yang said with a smirk.

“I think you'll find that I'm the one who has taste,” Ruby said, crossing her arms.

“Oh yeah?” Yang said, doing the same. “'Cause where I'm standing it looks like you haven't even worked up the nerve to tell her much less taste her.”

“Yang!” Ruby blushed, elbowing her while trying not to think about doing _that_ with Weiss. At least not with her sister _right_ _there_.

“Fine, fine,” Yang said, before pausing for a long moment. “I don't know why you didn't want me to go with you, but we will talk about this.”

Ruby looked down. “Fine. Later.”

“Later,” Yang agreed with a nod.

The other ship had a monster that ate people like she ate cookies. Her ship had a conversation with her sister that she _really_ didn't want to have. If she'd headed to the airlock any faster she would've needed super speed.

“Slow down, you dolt!” Weiss shouted, jogging to catch up to her. “Honestly.”

“Heh, sorry Weiss,” Ruby said with a sheepish grin. She was already waiting in the airlock.

“Alright, ready?” Weiss asked.

“Ready,” Ruby said, saluting.

“Be safe,” Yang said. “Both of you.”

“You as well,” Weiss said, nodding to Yang and Blake individually.

“Yeah!” Ruby shouted, waving, before pressing the airlock button. When it began to cycle she slumped. “Oh god, we're going back to the monster ship.”

“It was your idea!” Weiss said.

“Yeah, but… still.”

Weiss sighed. “We'll just need to be careful. I… I don't want anything to happen to you, Ruby.”

Ruby impulsively reached over and grabbed one of Weiss' hands, making them both blush. It was her right hand, which was soft and smooth, like she'd never done a day of work in her life. Ruby knew that wasn't really true, that Weiss was the hardest working person she knew, even if she was as beautiful and delicate as a fairytale princess.

Before either of them could work up the nerve to say anything the airlock door opened, revealing the boarding tube. Ruby justified holding hands to herself by her still lesser experience with moving in zero gravity, which conveniently had also been an excuse to spend a lot of time with Weiss over the past month.

It was only when the _Marionette's_ airlock began to cycle with them inside that she finally, reluctantly let go of Weiss' hand so that she could pull out her rifle. It didn't have a light on it, but a bit of tape quickly corrected that as she stuck her flashlight to the side of the barrel and turned it on.

“Oh!” Ruby said, breaking the comfortable silence. “I should've gotten you a light!”

“I borrowed Blake's while you were talking to your sister,” Weiss said, switching the small light on and drawing her sword.

“Oh, good,” Ruby said. “It'd be awkward to be running from a giant monster using your Scroll light.”

“Yes, that's the part that would be bothersome,” Weiss drawled. “Not the giant monster trying to eat us.”

“Right,” Ruby agreed with a nod.

Before Weiss could say anything else the airlock doors slid open and they both tensed, weapons at the ready. The corridor was just as dark and silent as before, and several long moments passed before they breathed a sigh of relief. No monster had jumped out to eat their faces, and Ruby chuckled quietly at how silly they were being. They hadn't been attacked last time the moment they set foot on the ship, so why would the second time be any different?

Ruby moved first, cautiously sticking her head out, only to pull back with a yelp when the airlock doors started to close. Weiss jumped, before scoffing when she realized what Ruby was reacting to and hit the open button again. This time they both stepped out, looking both ways with their flashlights without having to say a word.

“So where should we go?” Weiss asked softly.

“Uh… probably the engine room,” Ruby said. “At least it's a place to start.”

“Right,” Weiss said. “Come on. But first…” She pulled out her Scroll and pressed a few buttons, before frowning and shaking her head. “Comms _are_ down. We won't have any backup.”

Weiss put her scroll away and started to walk towards the front of the ship, only to stop when Ruby spoke up. “Wrong way.”

“I knew that,” Weiss said, turning around and walking the other way.

“So you went the wrong way on purpose?” Ruby teased.

“Quiet, you,” Weiss said, her face bright red. Ruby almost couldn't believe how adorably childish Weiss could be sometimes.

The moment of levity faded as they walked further from the safety of their own ship. The only thing more disturbing than the darkness was the silence, which ate away at Ruby. It was like they were walking towards a firing squad, every hesitant step bringing them closer to death. Ruby wanted to break the stillness, to say something, _anything,_ but instead they reached the door at the end of the hall.

Exchanging a quick glance with Weiss, Ruby raised her rifle to her shoulder, keeping her light and the barrel pointed towards possible enemies on the other side, and then hit the door open button. It was an iris valve door, the metal spiraling open to reveal darkness beyond. Not even engineering had lights, which was incredibly wrong. Short of damaging the lighting panels, Ruby hadn't even thought it was possible to plunge the room into total darkness.

Panning her flashlight around, Ruby gulped slightly, wishing she'd decided to check the bridge instead. Even the engine room of the _Myrtenaster_ had a lot of open space and dark corners, as the machinery that allowed the ship to move and keep a breathable atmosphere was all concentrated in that one area, with plenty of room to access the different parts so they could be serviced and repaired. The _Marionette_ was somewhat larger, with an even larger engine room, full of places to hide, and impossible to properly light with just a pair of flashlights. If a dozen monsters were lurking right in front of them they'd never know until they were already in their bellies.

Weiss stepped past her, entering the room with her sword in one hand and Blake's flashlight in the other, slowly panning it across the room, her heeled boots echoing loudly on the metal grating of the floor. She paused briefly here and there, her flashlight focused on several damaged ceiling tiles, which explained the total darkness. Not only was all normal and emergency lighting off on the ship, but something actually had deliberately destroyed the few lights that couldn't be turned off for any reason. Something with large, sharp claws.

Ruby shuddered, thoughts of the monster creeping up behind her in the dark making her follow Weiss into the room, hitting the door close button. While dark, the engine room at least wasn't silent, as the familiar sounds of a humming reactor, cycling air system, and a dozen other mechanical devices soothed her nerves, if only a little.

Weiss, on the other hand, seemed more on edge than ever, if the way her flashlight's beam was shaking meant anything. Ruby considered that she was probably correct that the engine room was more dangerous than the hall had been, but being so scared she was shaking wouldn't help anything.

“Hey, it's okay,” Ruby murmured, touching Weiss' shoulder.

Weiss jumped at the contact, yelping a little, before glaring at Ruby. “I'm trying to watch for danger!”

Ruby raised the hand that touched her up defensively, the other awkwardly holding onto her heavy rifle, making its light play wildly across the room. “Sorry… just… you seemed a little, uh…”

“I'm not scared!” Weiss said stridently.

“I didn't say-”

“I just… have a healthy appreciation for the risks involved in what we're doing,” Weiss said.

“Right,” Ruby agreed, deciding that humoring her captain was the best way forward. She really was very high strung, and she hated showing weakness. Ruby knew she'd have to work on that if they ever became more than just friends.

What was she thinking about! They were in danger from a monster and she kept getting distracted! Argh!

“Ruby?” Weiss said.

“Huh?”

“Are you going to see what you can do about the hacking?”

“Oh!” Ruby said. “Right.”

She carefully panned her light around the room, until she was satisfied that nothing had snuck up on her while she was distracted. She then moved over to a workstation and set down her rifle, hitting a few buttons. The system wasn't locked out, making her sigh with relief. Given time she could reboot it past any security, but she really didn't want to have to go climbing through the engine room looking for the mainframe to mess with it.

Well, she did want to crawl around in the engine room. She'd never actually worked on a military ship before, and it sounded really, really cool. But now wasn't the time.

She set to work, but was soon frowning at what she found. She continued plugging away at it, until finally she slumped with a groan. “What is it?” Weiss asked.

Ruby waved at the screen while Weiss, who had previously been panning her light around the room keeping watch, turned to look at it. “I thought we could fix it here, but we can't.”

“We need to go elsewhere?” Weiss asked. “Like the bridge?”

“No,” Ruby sighed. “I'm starting to think it wasn't hacking.”

“What do you mean?”

“ _Marionette's_ computer is messed up the same way _Myrtenaster's_ is,” Ruby said. “I think it might be a computer virus or something.”

“So what do we do?” Weiss asked.

“Well, is sending out a distress beacon a bad idea?” Ruby asked.

“Can we with the computer messed up like this?” Weiss asked.

“I dunno,” Ruby said, pressed a few buttons. “I think so? I just didn't try 'cause of the whole 'avoid the navy' thing we've got goin' on. They're the one's who'd come, right?”

“Probably,” Weiss agreed.

“Then how 'bout we try to figure out how to fix this computer,” Ruby said. “They should have restore stuff, right? I bet I can get it all reset and rebooted. I'm not sure how to fix our ship from there, but maybe the same stuff would work on ours? Or-”

Before she could continue there was a sound from deeper in the room. Weiss barely noticed it, as she wasn't able to tell the normal sounds of the engine room from the things that didn't fit. The _Marionette_ didn't sound like the _Myrtenaster_ , but Ruby had still picked up on the naval ship's rhythms well enough to know something wasn't right.

“What is it?” Weiss asked, turning and pointing her flashlight in the direction Ruby was looking.

Ruby grabbed her rifle and stood, panning it around, trying to figure out what she had heard. It had sounded like the floor grating clattering, but nothing should've done that. Since the engine room could lose gravity if something went wrong the metal grating was well secured, with tools or significant force being needed to pry them up from above.

She walked a few steps closer to the side of the room, peering down a row of machinery, but she couldn't see anything. She breathed a small sigh of relief, convinced she'd just been hearing things. Maybe some military system she didn't know made that kind of clatter?

“What is it?” Weiss asked.

“I thought I heard something but, I guess not,” Ruby said, turning to look at her. “So should I look for the drives or-”

Before she could finish the sentence something exploded out of the floor behind Weiss. She sidestepped, getting her friend out of her line of fire, and raised her rifle, gaping in shock at what her flashlight revealed.

It was a vaguely humanoid figure, with a hunched posture caused by a curving spine and reverse-jointed legs. The figure's head resembled a wolf, and the body was covered in thick, oily clumps of fur. Part of the skull, as well as the ribs and some other scattered bones were visible, with the skull having red patterns covering the white bone. The creature had glowing red eyes, and long, boney claws dripping with black oil.

It had burst out of the floor grating, and immediately began to lunge, drooling maw and razor claws bared, seeking out Weiss' vulnerable back. Some instinct took over, and Ruby's gun, which had been pointing towards it to provide light, roared. The creature reared back, yelping like a kicked dog, a new hole above its hip oozing with black oil.

It didn't hesitate for long, and while Ruby fumbled with the bolt action of her sniper rifle, it began to lunge forward again. Weiss spun on a toe like a ballerina, swinging her sword in a wide arc behind her, the graceful motion having little force behind it, but none was needed. The impossibly sharp forcefield that covered the blade sheared through the monster's arm like it was little more than air, the limb falling to the ground and sending the monster reeling back with a pained roar.

“What- what is it?!” Weiss gasped.

The monster moved back some distance, until it was crouched near the cowling for the reactor cooling system. The arm which had been chopped off broke down into nothing but the black oil and oozed down through the grating, and before their eyes they saw first the hole Ruby's bullet had put in it close up, followed by the missing arm completely regenerating.

The monster raised its replaced arm in front of its face, flexed its claws, and then roared at them, the sound almost deafening. It then charged forward once more, moving on all fours as it closed the gap with inhuman speed.


	23. Discovery

Ruby fired at the monster, this time aiming at its knee. The snap shot wasn't perfect, hitting it in the thigh instead, but it still made it stumble, falling forward off balance and for a moment defenseless. Weiss felt her heart pounding in her chest, the terror of seeing the monster regrow an arm and launch forward to attack again making her freeze up, but when Ruby's painfully loud rifle fired it pulled her from it and she lunged, blade flashing.

Weiss had never wanted to see the inside of a monster's head, but she was treated to a view of it as her blade cleaved it's wolf-like skull in twain. It seemed to lack anything resembling a brain, simply being full of the same black, oily sludge that matted its fur and poured from its wounds. Like the arm had the top of the head dissolved into the black oil and ran down through the grating, and the corpse of the monster lay still, more blackness continuing to flow out of the empty lower skull.

“What is it?” Weiss asked, her voice shrill.

“I dunno,” Ruby said, moving up a step so that she was beside Weiss. After pausing for a moment she reached down with her rifle and poked it in the shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Weiss asked.

“Poking it,” Ruby said with a shrug, before doing it again.

“Why are you poking it?!”

“I dunno,” Ruby said. She then poked it again.

With the last poke the body twitched, and they both jumped back. Slowly the monster levered itself up to its feet, the head rapidly regenerating like the arm had. “How is it still alive!” Weiss screamed.

“I don't know!” Ruby shouted back.

The head had only regenerated up to about the eyes, but they glared malevolently as the monster roared in reply, the sound physically painful so close. Without having to say a word both women turned and ran for the closest door to the room. Ruby was faster, hitting the door open button and getting out of the way for Weiss to follow, waiting on the other side with a hand over the control panel.

Weiss didn't wait to look back, but she could hear the monster start to chase her, its steps still a little awkward from the missing half of a head. Ruby hit the door close button and the iris valve shut, before a moment later there was a loud impact as it slammed into the metal. They both looked at the door, wide eyed in terror, before looking at each other.

“H-how is it alive?” Weiss repeated, her voice shaking.

“I dunno,” Ruby said again. “At least its trapped in-”

Before she could finish the sentence their was a loud slamming sound, followed by the shriek of tortured metal as the monster's claws cut through the door. It wasn't quick, not like Weiss' sword, but it began to tear it apart, and it was obviously only a matter of seconds before it would be able to force its way through.

“Come on!” Ruby shouted, taking off running again.

They had taken the closest exit from the engine room, which unfortunately put them on the far side of the ship from the airlock they had entered through. The hall was just as dark as the rest of the ship had been, and for the rest of her life Weiss' nightmares would feature strange hallways lit only by erratically moving flashlights while monsters chased her. After a short distance Ruby, who had taken the lead again, slapped a door open button and ran into a room on the left.

Weiss followed, grunting in pain as her shoulder bounced off of the doorframe in her haste. Ruby then hit the close button, and the doors, which were larger and heavier than the rest of those on the ship, slowly moved until they sealed with the hiss of an airlock.

For a few moments she could do nothing by try to catch her breath, but they hadn't even looked around the dark room, and fears that they had simply trapped themselves with more monsters made her wildly pan her flashlight around with shaking hands. Only when she was sure that she didn't see a monster did she start to calm down, but a moment later there was another impact against the door, and then a scratching sound against the metal.

“Don't worry,” Ruby said, barely even breathing hard despite the fear and running. “That door's reinforced and airtight. It can't get through… I hope.”

“You hope?”

Ruby shrugged, tightening her grip on her rifle, and the two of them stood side by side, staring at the door as the monster alternated between pounding on it and scratching against it. After almost a minute that felt like an hour it roared loudly, the sound muffled, and then it became silent.

“Did… did it leave?” Weiss whispered.

“Or it's waiting for us to open the door and check on it,” Ruby said.

Weiss swallowed hard, the image of the monster waiting patiently on the other side for them to run out of food and finally risk leaving, only to be torn to pieces and devoured making her breath speed up and her heart pound. It was suddenly getting hard to breathe, and the door had been air tight… was there enough air in the room? Did they have to open the door just to get air?!

“Weiss!” Ruby shouted, making her jump and shriek. Strange hands grabbed Weiss, pulling at her, and she screamed again, struggling wildly, trying to get her sword into play. “Weiss! Calm down, please!”

The person grabbing her wasn't some stranger attacking her, but rather Ruby trying to hold onto her. For a moment she couldn't fully comprehend this, but when she realized what was happening she dropped her sword, not wanting to risk cutting one of them with it, and finally surrendered to the touch, getting pulled into Ruby's arms. The younger woman hugged her tightly, and one hand began to slowly card through her hair.

“I'm sorry,” Weiss muttered.

“It's okay,” Ruby said.

“I'm supposed to be the captain,” Weiss said. “I came along to protect you, and instead you're having to take care of me.”

“If you weren't here I'd be freaking out,” Ruby said. “I kinda am on the inside, anyway. I mean, we're getting chased by a Grimm!”

“There's no such thing as Grimm,” Weiss grumbled, finally pulling away from the reassuring contact. As they separated Weiss couldn't stop thinking about how much she already missed the warmth.

“An hour ago I'd've said there's no such thing as whatever that was,” Ruby said.

“Still, I'm sure there's a logical explanation,” Weiss said. “Grimm are supposed to be monsters that live along the frontier, hunting and killing people on remote worlds and lost ships. People use them to explain failed colonies and missing traders; it's all folklore to make it easier to accept dangers beyond human knowledge or control.”

“Sure, that makes sense,” Ruby said, nodding seriously. “But, counter argument: freaky Grimm trying to eat us on a lost ship.”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “Dolt.”

“Maybe,” Ruby agreed with an idiotic grin. “But you're feeling better aren't you?”

Surprisingly, Weiss was. She didn't want to admit it though, simply huffing and turning away from Ruby to take in the room. No longer panicked, she was able to absorb details beyond 'no visible monsters about to eat her'.

It appeared to be a lab of some kind, with scientific equipment everywhere, along with various tanks and cages for containing specimens. At a guess, Weiss supposed that it was intended for studying interesting lifeforms found on new worlds, although given the size of the lab in relation to the ship, it probably served as a general location for scientific testing. There just wasn't enough room for many labs of that size.

“What's that?” Ruby said, pointing her rifle to shine her own light on something.

The something in question was a large, clear cylindrical tube near one wall. It was made of reinforced glass, but it had partially shattered, with a large pool of viscous liquid covering the floor in front of the tube. Most of the liquid was clear, but there was the same oily black fluid that the monster secreted clouding it.

“It looks like where the creature came from,” Weiss said, shining her light around. There were some bloodstains nearby, making her suspect that whoever had been foolish enough to study it hadn't fared well. “It was probably badly hurt when they brought it onboard, and after it regenerated enough it broke loose.”

“Why were they keeping _that_ like a pet fish?” Ruby demanded.

Weiss side eyed her. “This is a scout ship. They probably found it on some remote planet and brought it back for study.”

“Right,” Ruby said. “I wonder if they found any weaknesses?”

“That's a good idea,” Weiss said. “Let's look around… also, we should make sure there aren't any other means of ingress. If that monster broke out of this lab it did so without damaging the doors.”

Ruby shined her light on some of the blood spatter. “Someone might've opened the doors not knowing what was going on.”

“Probably… still,” Weiss said. “Better safe than torn limb from limb by a monster.”

“Good motto,” Ruby agreed.

It didn't take Weiss long to get sidetracked. She had looked for research stations, hoping to find notes about the creature and possible video recordings of it, but the monitors, like many of the physical lights, were broken. Still, she did find a variety of handwritten notes, quickly sketched out on flimsy plastic sheets with a marker. The handwriting was almost impossible to decipher, but she began to carefully work her way through them.

“Whoa!” Ruby called.

Weiss dropped the pages and shined her light towards Ruby, who was looking at something hidden behind a large piece of computer equipment. “What is it?”

“I found a robot!”

“That isn't _that_ unusual,” Weiss said, although she walked over to see it for herself.

Androids, robots designed to mimic the basic body shape of people, with artificial intelligence capable of simple tasks, were a fairly recent breakthrough on Atlas. Weiss' father had shown some off at high class gatherings, and over the past decade the shock troops for the navy had been replaced with expendable combat machines able to wield standard arms.

What Ruby had found defied Weiss' understanding of robotics. Rather than a crude metal shell that resembled humanity in form only, the body was covered in some kind of high quality artificial skin and realistic red hair. It's green eyes, which looked normal, were open, and if it wasn't for the exposed circuitry and wiring she would've thought it was a dead person.

“I've… never seen anything like this,” Weiss said.

“It's really cool,” Ruby said. She tore the tape holding her light to her gun, sticking it in her mouth and folding the rifle so that it sat at the small of her back. She then set to work examining it, and Weiss moved over to shine her light at an angle to help her see.

Eventually Ruby pulled her light from her mouth and sat back. “So… I've never seen anything like this before.”

“Neither have I,” Weiss said.

“She's really damaged,” Ruby said. “It looks like that Grimm-”

“It's not a Grimm,” Weiss inserted.

Ruby ignored the interjection. “-tore her to pieces. Just about everything about her is damaged at least a little. She was plugged into the computers when it happened, though.”

“What do you mean?” Weiss asked curiously.

Ruby grabbed a wire and traced it, until she reached where it was plugged into the base of the nearby computer terminal. “See? This is a data line. I'm not sure what she was doing, but it's still plugged in. She must've been accessing info or something.”

“Can you fix it?” Weiss asked.

Ruby frowned. “Maybe. She's in really bad shape.”

“If we want to know what happened here it might be our only lead,” Weiss said. “The only handwritten notes are hard to decipher, the monitors are broken, and we can't access the ship's computer without them… not that it would do much good, given their state.”

“Alright,” Ruby said, pulling out a couple of tools and starting to fiddle with the robot.

Weiss leaned back against the wall, shining her flashlight on the robot to help, but mostly just watching Ruby. Normally she was a bit all over the place, rushing from interesting thing to interesting thing, and rambling about whatever came to mind. Bouncy, excited Ruby was cute… but so was focused Ruby. In fact, with the light reflecting from her eyes, like tiny silver mirrors in the dark, Weiss found herself unable to look away.

“Got it!” Ruby said, before pausing for a long moment, and then leaning back with a groan. “Or not. Ugh. I'm not sure what's wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Weiss asked, before clearing her throat. She must've been sitting there in silence staring at Ruby for much longer than she'd thought, as her voice came out a bit breathy.

“I thought I'd fixed her enough to wake up, and it seemed like something happened, but that was it,” Ruby said with a sigh. “I've never even worked on a normal robot, and she- she is… whoa. I mean, wow! She's so high tech…”

Ruby trailed off, looking into Weiss' eyes for a moment, before blushing and looking away shyly. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Weiss murmured.

“Like you...” Ruby trailed off, before taking a deep breath and looking up at Weiss through her eyelashes. “Like you want to kiss me.”

Weiss paused, not sure how to respond. She did want to kiss Ruby, but she still wasn't sure it was a good idea. It would be much smarter to wait until they reached Vale, where they weren't trapped in a tiny ship together before asking her out on a date. Maybe another stroll in a park, like they'd enjoyed on Beacon before Blake's predicament had interrupted them.

“Maybe I'm wrong,” Ruby started babbling. “Maybe you don't feel that way. I'm sorry! I just thought… I mean, I thought we'd been flirting for a while, but I'm not that great at flirting and I was too nervous to act like Yang, and she's kinda gross about that stuff anyway, so I didn't really want to. So maybe I'm the only one that wants to, and this is kinda a bad time anyway. I mean, there's a Grimm outside and it wants to kill us and we're stuck in here, but I guess we can cut our way out again, but if there's more than one we wouldn't have anywhere to hide, and there's a dead robot or whatever and that's kinda creepy, and-”

Weiss leaned forward and kissed her. Ruby's lips were rough and chapped, and they were pressed together for several heartbeats before she stopped trying to babble, and after that several more long seconds passed with her frozen in seeming shock. Weiss was just about to pull back and apologize when suddenly Ruby's arms wrapped around her and she was being kissed back fiercely.

Ruby's kisses were nothing like Emerald's had been. She had been highly skilled, able to make Weiss get lost in a pleasant haze in moments. Ruby was awkward and a little shy, the kiss staying chaste even as it carried on for longer and longer, but there was a passion to it that Emerald had lacked. Weiss felt like her heart was a bird trapped in the cage of her breast, frantically flapping its wings seeking escape, and filling her with a warm glow with every beat.

Finally she pulled back, smiling smugly as Ruby panted for breath, her eyes wide open and face cutely flushed. “Wow…”

Weiss chuckled and leaned in for another kiss, and this time Ruby responded right away. She extended her tongue licking Ruby's lips, and in response the arms tightened around Weiss' back. They were soon lost in the moment, both moaning quietly in the dark, flashlights dropped and forgotten as weeks of tension exploded between them. Weiss didn't even realize her hands had started to roam until she rested one on Ruby's firm, shapely bottom, making the other woman groan loudly against her lips before pulling away.

“W-wait, wait,” Ruby gasped.

Weiss pulled back, the questing hand pressing quickly against her own stomach and biting her swollen lip nervously. “I'm sorry!”

“No!” Ruby said. “No! That's not… it's okay, I just, you know… that was… wow.”

“Sorry,” Weiss said more quietly, looking away. “Perhaps I was a bit carried away. I apologize-”

Ruby leaned forward and kissed her cheek, before giggling and grabbing her hand. “You're silly.”

“I don't want to hear that from _you_ ,” Weiss huffed.

Ruby just giggled again, completely ignoring Weiss' disgruntlement. “I'm not against, you know, getting a little handsy, but I don't want our first time together to, well, be in some creepy lab with a monster after us and a dead robot watching us.”

Weiss felt herself calm down, her worries that she had gone too far or too fast dispelled by the honesty in Ruby's voice. “Alright. If I do go too far-”

“I'll tell you,” Ruby said. “Just promise you will, too?”

Weiss chuckled. “I think I'm the last person you have to worry about not telling you if you make me upset.”

Ruby giggled. “Yeah… hard to imagine this all started with you yelling at me for trying to steal your copper wiring.”

Weiss huffed. “That's the sort of thing I was informed people do on poor colonies. I suppose my concerns about the Faunus aren't the only biases that I've had to reexamine this journey.”

“Looking back on it it was pretty funny, but at the time you were probably the scariest person I'd ever met,” Ruby confided, stealing a quick kiss after doing so.

“Yes, well, it seemed like taking a firm hand with some lowlife copper thief was the correct approach,” Weiss said.

“So… does this mean we're girlfriends?” Ruby asked.

“Do you… do you wish to be together?” Weiss asked. “Officially?”

Ruby was quiet for long enough to make Weiss get concerned, but finally she spoke up. “Do you really want to be with me? You're from some big rich Atlas family, and I'm… not. I don't know what you see in me. And you're so cool, and smart, and beautiful, and just… what do you see in me?”

Weiss gaped at her for a moment. “You don't… I don't ever want to hear you talk about yourself like that again! You're kind, and sweet, and so, so determined. You're cute, and supportive, and you make me smile. You're brave, willing to charge through space to save a friend you just met, and you're a genius with machines. And you just… you have this light in you. I might be the captain, but even in the short time we've been together you've become my North Star, guiding me through the dark. So if anyone ever says you're not good enough again, even you, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind, okay?”

“Okay!” Ruby squeaked. “So… we're girlfriends.”

“Yes, you dolt!” Weiss barked, before leaning in and kissing her hard.

This time both of them let their hands wander, and they might have carried on much further than either of them wanted to under the circumstances until a voice made them break apart in shock.

“Salutations! Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt your mating rituals. If you'd like I can put myself back into suspend mode until your business is complete.”


	24. Creatures of Grimm

Weiss and Ruby jerked apart, gaping in shock at the robot who had just spoken.

It was strangely unsettling with its eyes focused on them, as the parts that weren't damaged looked perfectly human, but the rest was a shredded mess of wiring and circuits. The robot seemed only able to move its head, and even that barely, but it spoke again anyway. “Or… I've never actually seen two women engage in an intimate relationship. I have to admit to a certain curiosity-”

“Nope!” Ruby yelped. “Nope nope nope!”

“Wait!” Weiss shouted.

The android turned its eyes to focus on her. They looked completely realistic, like they were actually human eyes looking at her instead of some kind of machine. “You want to demonstrate-”

“No!” Weiss shouted, before closing her eyes and taking a deep, calming breath. Now wasn't the time to yell at the annoying machine. “No. I simply want to point out that a moment ago you were apparently non-functional. Now you're… your lasciviously proposing voyeuristic activities.”

“Huh?” Ruby asked, obviously confused by her vocabulary.

Weiss decided that it was for the best that she found confusion looked cute on Ruby. She was distracted by the look for long enough for the robot to speak up before she could. “I apologize; I did not mean to give offense. I was just curious since my father only told me about men and women having sexual relations.”

“Your father?” Ruby asked.

The robot suddenly looked sad, which made Weiss distinctly uncomfortable. The robots her father had demonstrated could fake a few emotional reactions, but it was all scripted. Perhaps it was how realistic the face looked, but she almost thought that it really _felt_ something.

“Yes, my father, Doctor Polendina, created me. When he was asked by Atlas to accompany this ship I went with him. He… he didn't survive.”

Ruby reached out and took the robot's hand, the only one still attached, and squeezed it like the robot was a real person needing emotional support. At the grateful look on its face Weiss couldn't bring herself to speak up. It felt… wrong to treat the robot like an object when it was capable of reacting like that.

“What's your name?” Ruby asked.

“Penny,” the robot said. “Penny Polendina.”

“It's nice to meet you Penny,” Ruby said. “I'm Ruby Rose, and this is Weiss Schnee!”

“Salutations,” Penny said.

“What happened here?” Weiss asked.

“I'm not supposed to talk about the mission,” Penny said. “My father told me it was supposed to be top secret.”

Weiss tried to think of some way of tricking the robot into telling her something useful. The others she'd interacted with were incredibly literal, and completely driven by their programming. It was impossible to convince them to do something against their orders, but they could be tricked into doing it with the right prompt.

“Whatever happened there's a Grimm running around on the ship trying to kill us, and ours can't leave because of some kind of computer virus or something,” Ruby said. “Please, if you don't help us figure things out… we're gonna be in a lot of trouble.”

“What are you doing here?” Penny asked. “You aren't part of the crew, and you don't look like you're in the Navy. Shouldn't Ms. Schnee be on Atlas?”

“I have a free trader,” Weiss said. “We were traveling to Vale when we received a distress signal from this ship. Then… well, now we're trapped in a dark room speaking with you.”

“I see,” Penny said, frowning. “It wouldn't be right for people to suffer for trying to help others. I'll tell you everything I can.

“Scouts have been finding unusual life on scattered worlds for decades. At first the reports weren't believed, but finally a special expedition was dispatched to find the truth, including a number of the brightest scientific minds from Atlas, such as my father. They were supposed to uncover the secret of whatever these creatures are.”

“Wait, you mean things like that monster were found on many worlds?!” Weiss interjected. “How is that possible?”

“That was one reason why the reports about the creatures were never believed,” Penny said. “Attempts to take samples had also failed, and follow ups rarely discovered evidence of the creatures that had been reported. It was only this expedition that one was finally captured, but as it turns out that was not accomplished safely. I suppose this is another failed expedition attempting to retrieve one of the Creatures of Grimm.”

“I knew it was a Grimm!” Ruby interjected. “See Weiss! Grimm are real!”

Weiss sent her a glare. “How can it be a Grimm?! Those are just myths, fairy tales!”

“Like I said, the reports of the creatures were never believed, but many stories slipped out,” Penny said. “The truth of the creatures was far beyond anything that we could have predicted.”

There was a long moment of silence, until finally Ruby broke it. “What truth?”

“The Grimm aren't normal living creatures,” Penny said. “On a number of remote worlds are strange pools of black, oily fluid, which are actually vast swarms of microscopic machines. These nanites will absorb any living thing immersed within them, and a strange creature emerges afterwords, transformed into a monstrous mockery of the original species. Despite its appearance it's composed entirely of nanites, and is almost impervious to harm. My father and the other scientists were still researching its abilities and how to actually stop them when it broke loose from containment.”

“So that thing is made of nanites?” Weiss asked. “Where did they come from? Who made them?”

“Unknown,” Penny said. “The only explanation is that they must be of alien origin.”

“So the Grimm are real, and they're made by aliens?” Ruby asked. “Real, sentient aliens?”

“Yes,” Penny said.

“That's so cool!” Ruby shouted. “Weiss, aliens are real!”

Weiss was sitting in shock, having trouble absorbing all of this. “How is that possible?”

“The pools are small and in very old areas,” Penny said. “The current theory is that they were left by some distant precursor species. Being nanites they reproduce themselves, and so could theoretically survive long past their creators. It's impossible to say what purpose they originally had, but given the capabilities of the creatures it was theorized that they were intended to be some kind of war machine.”

“So what can we do about it?” Ruby asked. “You said they didn't figure out how to stop it?”

“No,” Penny said. “However, no Grimm have ever been found by later expeditions to follow up the evidence of a sighting, which means that they probably either breakdown and fall apart given enough time, or some other condition.”

“If we can't stop it then we need to get out of here,” Weiss said. “When we connected to your ship we picked up a computer virus or something. Our computers are unable to control our ship.”

Penny's brow scrunched up in confusion. “A virus? Why would there be a virus? The _Marionette_ was in perfect condition.”

“It's not,” Ruby said, shaking her head. “I thought someone had hacked into our ship to take it over, but then when I got over here it was the same way. That's why I thought it was a virus.”

“That's strange,” Penny said. “I didn't notice anything unusual before I ceased functioning. I will attempt to determine the nature of the problem.”

She closed her eyes, and Weiss and Ruby looked at each other awkwardly. Weiss noticed that Ruby's lips were still a little swollen from their earlier kissing, which was more than a little embarrassing… and made her want to kiss her again. Of course, doing so might potentially provoke the wrath of Yang, so it might be best not to appear as though she'd been accosting Ruby while they were alone.

“Oh, I apologize,” Penny said, opening her eyes.

“What for?” Ruby asked.

“I seem to be the one responsible for the current state of the computer systems,” Penny said sheepishly. “When I was damaged by the Grimm I managed to hook myself into the computer network before I was unable to fully control my body. I sent a courier drone requesting naval support, and when the crew were unable to control the ship, attempted to take control of it so that I could more quickly bring it to get aid. Unfortunately the damage that I had sustained caught up with me before I finished taking over the ship, and the runaway process I had begun seems to have caused irreparable harm to the software.”

Weiss frowned, trying to follow the explanation. “So you were trying to control the ship when you… crashed, and it brought down your computers, and then ours when we connected?”

“Yes,” Penny said. “I apologize. Still, restoring control of your ship should be a simple matter of reinstalling your operating system.”

“We… kinda don't know where our backups are,” Ruby said sheepishly.

“I see,” Penny said. “I take it that you don't have sensor control on your ship?”

“No,” Ruby said. “Not since we connected to yours.”

“This is a scout ship, and it has access to the best Atlesian sensor technology,” Penny said. “I've picked up a ship moving towards us without an active transponder. It seems to have left one of the wormholes three hours ago.”

“Is it the navy?” Weiss asked. “When did you send the courier drone?”

Penny shook her head. “The navy should be here soon, but there may be significant delays. This mission was classified, and so only a properly vetted captain would be allowed to answer the distress call. It would probably be for the best if you do not tell the navy how much I informed you about the situation with the Grimm.”

“Don't worry,” Weiss said dryly. “I don't think anyone would believe us, and I'm not eager to give the navy more reasons to be interested in my movements.”

“What ship is it?” Ruby asked.

“I have compared it against known ships in my databanks, and have concluded that it is the _Wilt_ , the personal craft of the White Fang Leader Adam Taurus.”

Weiss froze, unable to articulate any kind of response to that statement. Adam Taurus was in the system, and he was coming towards them. Even beyond his personal interest in Blake, Weiss had heard stories about his brutality. If he caught up to them even Ruby, who had done nothing to the Faunus, would suffer horribly before he killed her. She couldn't even imagine her own fate if he caught her; Faunus terrorists like Adam were the monsters who hid under her bed as a child, and she knew he wouldn't care that she was no longer a part of the SDC.

“We have to go,” Ruby said. “That other ship must've contacted him! He's after Blake.”

“He's after all of us,” Weiss said grimly. “I'm a Schnee. Even if I'd never met Blake he would… we _have_ to leave. Can you fix the computer damage?”

“I… maybe,” Penny said. “There may be a way to do it quickly… also, I do not mean to alarm you, but it appears that there is something wrong with the door.”

Weiss and Ruby shined their flashlights in that direction. A small amount of black oil was slowly pouring through the seam where the door had closed. Somehow the nanites were making it through the supposedly airtight seal, and they were beginning to pool in front of the door.

“That's… the monster's going to reform in here isn't it,” Ruby said.

“My calculations indicate that that is the most likely outcome, yes,” Penny said.

“Well, I had been wondering how it got into the engine room without damaging the doors,” Ruby said.

“We have to go,” Weiss snapped, standing and drawing her sword.

“We cannot let the White Fang retrieve the creature,” Penny said.

“They'd deserve everything it did to them,” Weiss said harshly.

“If they found some way to contain it they may learn to release similar on population centers,” Penny said. “Given our lack of safety anywhere on the ship, and the coming arrival of a White Fang Leader, the only option is to destroy this scout ship. The nuclear scuttling charge should destroy the Grimm entirely.”

“Our ship can't move,” Ruby said. “And being next to a nuclear bomb doesn't sound like a good idea.”

“Better than being caught by the likes of Adam Taurus,” Weiss said darkly.

“That won't be necessary,” Penny said. “I am capable of controlling a starship when I am not compromised. I can take over the _Myrtenaster's_ computer system and allow a resumption of normal operations.”

Weiss wasn't sure how she felt about the strange artificial intelligence 'taking over' her computer, but as the rate at which the black oil flowed increased she doubted she had much choice. “Fine. What do we need to do?”

“Take my core and connect it to your ship,” Penny said, her chest splitting open to reveal a small, crystalline object the size of a fist in the center of the robotic torso. “Please be careful with it… that in a very real sense is me.”

“I will,” Ruby said, reaching down to gently sort through the wiring. “I'll take good care of you.”

“Thank you,” Penny said, before closing her eyes and going limp as Ruby disconnected wires.

A moment later there was an alarm, and a robotic voice came over the intercom, repeating the same message in an endless loop. “Self destruct activated. Thirty minutes until nuclear detonation. Please evacuate using the escape pods in an orderly fashion.”

“Because nuclear bombs make for orderly escapes,” Weiss grumbled, climbing to her feet and shining her light on the growing pool of black oil. Assuming it needed to have the same approximate volume as the full Grimm it still had a bit to go, but they needed to move. “Ready?”

“Just a sec,” Ruby said, still fiddling inside of Penny's chest cavity. “Almost got it.”

The pool of black oil began to ripple, little waves forming on its surface. “Ready?!”

“Almost.”

The oil began to bulge upward, with more and more slowly rising above the level of the floor, the pool itself contracting as the liquid grew higher. It still lacked any real definition, but with each passing second it grew by inches.

“Got it!” Ruby said. “Let's go!”

“Where do I cut?” Weiss asked, forcing herself to turn her back on the liquid creature, which was nearly her height and if anything growing faster.

“Um, um… it's hard to tell in the dark,” Ruby said. “And I've never worked on a military ship before!”

“Guess!” Weiss barked, glancing over her shoulder at the Grimm, which by then was starting to attain a distinctly humanoid shape, even if it was smooth and rounded, like something a child made from clay.

“There,” Ruby said, pointing to a spot a little further down.

Weiss didn't question it, moving to that area and immediately slashing with her sword. The walls of the lab were reinforced, designed to keep anything contained within even if everything went wrong, but that made little difference to her Dust Blade. She soon stepped out of the way as the section of wall she'd cut fell to the ground with a tooth rattling impact, and she then shined her flashlight into the hole she'd made.

Unlike the White Fang yacht, where two rows of rooms existed between the main corridors of the ship, the bio lab was truly enormous, filling the entire center of the ship. Weiss's cut revealed the corridor beyond, and sticking her flashlight and head through let her see the airlock. Before she could move there was a painfully loud gunshot, and a sloppy, gurgling roar in response.

Looking back, Weiss saw that the Grimm was almost fully formed, but it still lacked the definition the creature had had in the engine room. The monster was more like a silhouette, with its head pulped by Ruby's gunshot. The injury fixed itself almost as fast as Ruby had made it, however, the partially reformed monster regenerating even faster than the final version had.

“Come on!” Weiss called, running down the hall, with Ruby soon outpacing her, sprinting ahead to hit the door open button on the airlock. By the time Weiss reached it Ruby was already inside, although she at least managed to avoid running into the doors as she followed.

She took one look back, where the Grimm, now fully reformed, rushed into the hall and ran towards them. Weiss stumbled back, raising her sword, but the doors closed before it reached them, the monster slamming into the metal with a loud howl, scratching at it furiously for a moment.

“Can it get through the door?” Ruby asked, eyeing the metal seem worriedly as the airlock began to cycle.

“It's the same kind of door the lab had, isn't it?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “It took a while though, didn't it?”

Weiss nodded, but kept her eyes locked on the seam of the airlock. She was staring so intensely that she thought she saw motion a few times, but it always went away when she blinked. Her heart was pounding in her chest, almost drowning out the twenty-seven minutes until detonation announcement, when finally the airlock door behind them opened.

Without a word Weiss grabbed Ruby's arm, and they hopped into the boarding tube, hitting the door close button on the airlock before launching down its length. The other airlock opened quickly, and then they had to wait once again for _Myrtenaster's_ airlock to cycle.

When it finally opened Weiss found herself face to face with a shotgun, only for Yang to lower it a moment later. “You're okay!”

“Sis!” Ruby shouted, hopping into Yang's arms for a moment, before pulling back. “I've gotta get to the engine room!”

With that she took off at a dead sprint, while Weiss led Yang and Blake to the bridge. “Come on, we've got to get ready to go.”

“You fixed the computers?” Yang asked.

“Ruby's doing that right now,” Weiss said. “We need to be ready to leave as soon as she's done.”

“What's the rush?” Yang asked.

Weiss spun on her heel, pointing a finger at her. “What's the _rush?!_ Maybe the Grimm on the other ship that's going to find its way across and kill us given enough time? Maybe the fact that Adam Taurus' personal ship is in system and heading towards us right now? Or maybe the _nuclear bomb_ on the other ship that's going to go off in about twenty-five minutes!”

Yang and Blake just gaped at Weiss until she turned back around and stormed her way to the bridge.

“ _WHAT?!?!”_


	25. No Win

The first thing Ruby did when she reached the engine room was scream a little. It felt good to let it out, and the engine room was far enough away, and had enough insulation, that no one in the crew area was likely to hear her.

She'd kissed Weiss! Grimm were real! She'd kissed Weiss! White Fang were coming to kill them! She'd kissed Weiss! A nuclear bomb was about to go off! Also, in case she forgot… she'd kissed Weiss!

Ruby took a few deep breaths and bounced in place, trying to burn off a little bit of her nerves. If they wanted to live she needed to get the ship working immediately, but the last hour had been pretty life changing. It all felt a little surreal, and part of her wanted to drop fixing the ship to run back to the bridge and make sure that it had all actually happened. Of course, they'd probably die if she did that, and it'd be hard to explain to Yang why she was trying to kiss Weiss all of a sudden when before they went to the other ship that wasn't a thing that happened, but…

It took a few deep breaths before Ruby finally felt centered enough to start working again. Kisses and bombs and Grimm and death were fine and all, but she also had an AI in her pocket, and she was happy to see her. Real AI were really real! That was so cool!

Ruby had always had her family, but Yang was the one with all the friends. Before meeting Weiss and Blake the only non-family option for her best friend had been Zwei, the family dog, or perhaps her custom made sniper rifle. Yang always said her best friend should be able to talk, so for a long time Ruby had wished for a robot best friend. She could fix them if something went wrong, and she was sure a robot would think dorky Ruby Rose was cool, and they wouldn't be people like all the ones who made fun of her whenever Yang wasn't around to beat them up.

When she'd gotten older and learned how crude the state of artificial intelligence was she'd been sad. Dreams of robot best friends had fallen apart as she'd watched recordings of Atlas field tests, and she'd realized how far from being real, thinking people robots were. But all that changed when she'd found Penny, right after learning Grimm were real and right before kissing Weiss. It had been a busy day…

The small device she'd taken from the robot, its core, looked like nothing more than a paperweight. She wasn't sure what it was made of, or what exactly it did, but at a guess it was some kind of really high end computer equipment. Probably whatever made the AI an AI instead of the dumb machines Atlas normally called robots. It was seamless, with no markings except for the letters 'P.E.N.N.13' engraved on the side, and a number of ports for wires.

Ruby didn't know if it was fragile, or if it needed to be kept clean, or really anything about it. It was Penny's core, which meant that it was important, and she wished she had time to fabricate some kind of cool containment for it. Not only to keep it safe, but because Penny deserved a cool container for the stuff that made her 'her'. Unfortunately she didn't have much time, what with the whole nuclear bomb about to explode… thing.

So Ruby set to work. She did feel the need to make something that could keep it safe, so a plain bit of metal rapidly bent into a box shape and lined with foam would have to do. Holes were speed drilled where the ports would be, and she ran the wires before hooking them up and attaching the metal box to the top of _Mytenaster_ 's computer core. It took a few minutes to guess which wire should do what, but she had a pretty good idea of what they had been for in the android body, so she did what she could and hoped for the best.

By the time she reached the computer terminal the screens were displaying green, swirling patterns. They'd never done that before, and Ruby really hoped that it wasn't a problem. Before she could fret too much one of the screens changed to a green, cartoony version of Penny's face.

“Salutations!” Penny said cheerfully.

“Penny!” Ruby shouted back. “Are you okay?”

“Affirmative, I am starship ready!” Penny said. “You should probably head to the bridge, though. I think my introduction to your sister did not go well.”

“Okay, thanks!” Ruby called, before jogging to the door and then dashing through the cargo hold. When she reached the bridge she could hear her sister's upset voice.

“What did you guys do over there!” Yang shouted.

“Look, we can worry about the consequences later… when we're not reduced to radioactive slag,” Weiss said. “From, you know… the _atomic bomb about to go off!_ _”_

“What's going on?” Ruby asked.

“Apparently the ship's haunted now,” Yang said, gesturing towards the sheepish face of Penny on one of the screens.

“I apologize,” Penny said. “I did not intend to startle you.”

“Yang, she's our friend now,” Ruby said.

Penny's eyes locked on Ruby. “Really? I'm your friend?”

“Um, sure,” Ruby said. “I always wanted a robot friend.”

“Sen- _sational_!” Penny cheered. “We can spend time together, and talk about boys… or girls, since you are romantically involved with Weiss.”

“WHAT!?” Yang shouted. “Since when?”

Ruby hopped over to Yang and wrapped her arms around her. “Yang! We're going to die if you don't fly the ship! I don't wanna meet mom and tell her I died because you were being over protective!”

“We're gonna talk about this later,” Yang growled, pressing a few buttons. “Now, am I going to be able to pilot the ship, or is it going to start doing weird stuff on its own?”

“This ship can be flown by the computer systems, however, I admit to not being skilled in piloting matters,” Penny said. “You will need to control the ship for optimal performance, although I will help where I can.”

“Just don't 'help' the controls out of place while I'm doing something,” Yang said, pressing a few buttons. The ship shook as the boarding tube retracted, and then the engines hummed to life and they began to fly away from the _Marionette_.

“We're moving,” Yang grunted. “You said there's a White Fang ship out here somewhere?”

“Affirmative,” Penny said. “I will bring it up on a secondary screen, but moving away from the _Marionette_ is a higher priority. The scuttling charge will be detonating shortly.”

Ruby took her seat as Yang increased power to the engines until they were at maximum acceleration without using the engine boost. She noticed that Penny had helpfully changed one of the screens to show a split display of the White Fang ship, as well as the relative position of it, the _Myrtenaster_ , and the _Marionette._

A few minutes later Penny spoke up again. “We have passed minimum safe range for the nuclear device. It will be detonating shortly.”

“Wait, there really is a nuclear bomb?” Yang asked. “I thought you were making that part up, like the whole Grimm thing.”

“We didn't make up the Grimm either,” Weiss snapped. “Do I really seem like the kind of person that would make up stupid stories like that? Honestly, I'm not planning on admitting what we saw to anyone else, ever.”

Yang was silent for a moment. “And the thing with you and my sister in a relationship?”

The words hung in the air awkwardly, until Penny interrupted. “Nuclear detonation has occurred. The _Marionette_ has been destroyed.”

Ruby brought up the camera view, as they'd travelled far enough that the explosion wasn't visible except for a brief flash of light behind them, and being on the bridge facing away from the ship made it even harder to see anything. The rear cameras showed a much more interesting tale as a miniature sun briefly bloomed where the ship had been, knocking the nearby icy planetoid out of position, possibly sending it into the right orbit to become a comet. Or perhaps her imagination was running away with her on that. Still…

“Cooooool,” Ruby said, drawing the word out as Penny looped the recording for her. She'd have to thank her new friend later, and get to know her better. Also, find out which rooms had internal security cameras, since Ruby suspected that the AI was something of a pervert.

“We've got a problem,” Blake said, breaking the long silence.

Weiss groaned. “Don't you think we have enough problems?”

“This is more of the same problem, really,” Blake said. “No matter how I run the numbers, I can't figure out a way to reach either wormhole without being intercepted by the _Wilt._ ”

Weiss stood and moved to look over her shoulder, and Ruby followed. Blake had multiple plots up on the screen, but they all showed the same thing. Unlike the yacht they'd run into before, the _Wilt_ was an actual combat ship, specifically a patrol frigate. While much less powerful than most naval ships, it was originally designed to hunt pirates, and so it was fast and well armed.

“They entered the system and plotted a course towards us that put them between us and both wormholes,” Blake explained. “No matter which one we go toward they have a much shorter path than us, allowing for an intercept. Even if they far slower than our ship we couldn't avoid them.”

They stared at the simulations playing out. No matter what path Blake plotted they'd be run down eventually. “Options?” Weiss asked quietly.

“What if we just… go the other way?” Ruby asked. “We've still got supplies, right?”

“Actually, we're running pretty low on essentials,” Yang said. “We're going to start having to eat less every day if we're out here much longer.”

“It wouldn't work anyway,” Blake said grimly. “This ship is very fast for a trader, but the _Wilt_ is a little faster. It would be a longer chase, but still a chase Adam would win.”

“Then we shouldn't run,” Yang said. “Can we fight?”

“Maybe we could chase off a pirate,” Weiss said. “Assuming the guns actually work. They haven't been fired in decades.”

“ _Wilt_ would destroy us in seconds,” Blake said. “The only thing that would keep us alive is his desire to take personal revenge on me, and probably Weiss as well. If we were able to put his ship at risk he'd just change tactics and blow us out of the sky.”

“There has to be something we can do,” Ruby fretted. After escaping a killer monster they were now facing death from a killer terrorist. It just wasn't _fair_. Shouldn't she at least get to make out with Weiss a little between life threatening situations?

“I could turn myself over to him,” Blake said. “He wants me more than anything else. Maybe-”

“No,” Weiss said, her voice hard and firm. “We won't do that.”

“But it might be the only way-”

“I am not going to sacrifice one my crew, one of my- of my _friends_ , just to save my life,” Weiss said. “I'd rather die.”

“That might be what will happen,” Blake said darkly.

“Come on, cheer up Blakey,” Yang said. “Just 'cause things are looking dark doesn't mean we can't figure something out.”

“Yeah!” Ruby said. “We just have to keep moving forward. Giving up just means we lose.”

“You guys are all idiots,” Blake said, blinking rapidly and avoiding their gazes.

Yang put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “So, no sacrifice play. What else've we got?”

After a long moment of thought Ruby spoke up. “I might have an idea. It's a little risky, though.”

“It's gotta be better than nothing,” Yang said.

“What if we fly right at them,” Ruby said.

There was a along moment of silence. “Okay, I was wrong,” Yang said. “That is worse than nothing.”

“No, see this ship has an engine boost!” Ruby said, waving her arms. “Most ships don't have something like that! So if we fly right at them we'll be going towards both wormholes, and they're flying towards us. We speed up all of a sudden when we get into weapons range, they hit us a few times and we go speeding towards a wormhole. Since they want to take us alive they won't try to blow us up, and once we're past 'em it'll take 'em longer to turn around, and they'll be out of position anyway since they won't expect us to speed up all of a sudden!”

“They'd blow us to pieces,” Weiss said. “We'd be flying right into their guns.”

“Only if he wants to blow us to pieces,” Blake pointed out. “If he's still expecting to cripple and board us he might be taken by surprise when we speed up and not hit us hard enough to stop us. If we're still going full acceleration we'd get through a wormhole long before he could turn around and catch back up. He'll have a lot of momentum to bleed to change course.”

While she said it Penny put together a simulation, showing the projected path. If they flew directly towards the White Fang ship, splitting the difference between the two wormholes, they could accelerate right as they entered weapons range, and then curve their path once the _Wilt_ overshot them, arcing around towards their wormhole. The projection showed the attacker having to take a much broader turn to try to catch back up to them, giving them plenty of time in the next system to hide.

“If he isn't taken by surprise?” Weiss asked.

“In the worst case scenario the enemy destroys the engines beyond repair,” Penny said, displaying a new plot of their ship reaching the _Wilt_ and then flying straight endlessly. The other ship had to make an extremely wide loop, but eventually it caught up to them and boarded. She then showed a few other scenarios, with varying degrees of damage inflicted to their ship, slowing it down to greater or lesser degrees.

After watching the possibilities unfold for a few moments everyone looked at Weiss, who was stone faced, eyes still locked on the screen. Ruby knew what she would do, but it was Weiss's ship. Finally, after a long, heavy silence, the white haired woman nodded. “I guess we don't have a choice. How long do we have until we reach them?”

“We will make contact in five hours and fourteen minutes,” Penny said.

Yang quickly began entering the route into the computer, even though Penny probably could've done it herself. The tension seemed to have broken once they'd settled on a course of action, although from the way Weiss slumped in her chair, staring blankly out at the stars she was still feeling the weight of her decision. Ruby walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, making her jump and then glare at her for a moment.

“You should get some rest,” Ruby said quietly. “It'll be hours before we get there.”

“There's no way I can rest right now,” Weiss said in a clipped tone.

Ruby bit her lip, hoping to think of some way to convince her to take a break, before leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to her temple. Weiss jerked back, before turning bright red. “Wh-what was that for?”

Ruby smiled. “Come on… just lay down for a minute, or read a book or something, okay? You'll feel way better, and if we're gonna survive this you've gotta be at your best.”

“Fine,” Weiss mumbled, standing reluctantly.

Ruby smiled as she led her captain-girlfriend from the bridge, but she felt something burning into her back as she went. A quick glance behind revealed the intense stare was coming from her sister, but before she could say anything, Ruby managed to get Weiss off the bridge. They walked in silence the few steps to Weiss's room, where they stopped, facing each other awkwardly.

In the end it was Weiss who moved first, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Ruby. She was stiff, and definitely not the best hugger Ruby had ever seen, but it felt nice anyway. After a few moments she finally relaxed and it became more natural. “Thanks.”

“You're welcome,” Ruby said, grinning.

Weiss pressed a quick kiss to her lips, but instead of deepening it she pulled back and hit the open door button. She hesitated in front of her room for a long moment, looking back and forth between it and Ruby, before finally speaking, her words so fast that Ruby couldn't make them out. “Doyouwanttocomein?”

“Huh?”

“Do you want to come in?” Weiss said aggressively, glaring at Ruby.

She hesitated, and then shook her head. “No… let's save that for later. We're gonna make it through this, and I don't want to feel bad about rushing things just 'cause we're nervous. Besides, I've gotta make sure the engines are ready for us.”

“Alright,” Weiss said, sounding a little relieved. “Don't work too hard, okay?”

“I won't,” Ruby promised. “I'll see you in a few hours.”

Weiss walked over and gave her one last quick, chaste kiss, and then went into her room. Once she did Ruby slumped a little with a sigh. Part of her really wished she'd gone in there with Weiss, but she meant what she'd said. It was her plan to get past the White Fang, and she had to believe it had a chance, and if they were going to be together she didn't want their first time to be tainted by being scared. Even if Weiss was the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen, and her hormones hated her for saying no.

Besides, she had work to do.

Thirty minutes later she was hard at work, opening access panels and making sure that every bit of machinery and circuitry for the engine boost was ready. They would only get one shot at it, and failure wasn't an option. She was almost done going over the big stuff when the engine room door opened.

“Hey, Rubles,” Yang said. “So, ready to talk?”


	26. The Wait

“H-hey, sis,” Ruby mumbled, before turning her attention back to the fuel line she'd been checking, her shoulders hunching up defensively. “I'm a little busy, so could we-”

“Nope,” Yang said firmly. “We're talking about this now. As in _right now_. So unless you've been lying to me all these years when you claimed you were listening while fixing something, talking to me won't stop you from working.”

Ruby slumped with a sigh. “Fine. What did you want to talk about?”

“Oh, a few things,” Yang said. “Why don't we start with what's going on between you and the ice queen?”

“She's not an ice queen!” Ruby objected. “She's… a little hard to get to know, but she's really nice!”

“Well, I'm not sure about 'nice' but I guess she isn't that bad,” Yang said. “Most of my doubts went away when we went after Blakey, and she didn't even think about giving her over to save herself just now. No, she's a good person, and if she treats you right that's fine. I just want to have a little sister to sister talk about this. And then an older sister to prospective girlfriend chat with her.”

Ruby groaned. “ _Yang_ … don't you think things are tough enough? I mean, we just escaped from a _Grimm_ , and now we're getting chased by terrorists. Please don't be mean to her.”

“I won't,” Yang said. “She just needs to know how things are.”

“ _Yang_ ,” Ruby whined, stopping her work to give her sister her best puppy dog eyes. “Please? We're still all new, and just kinda feeling things out, and her last relationship ended… bad. I don't wanna scare her off; I really like her.”

Yang kept her eyes away for as long as she could, before finally cracking and looking into her sister's big, glistening silver eyes. She groaned and slumped. “Fine! Fine. I won't be mean about it, but I am gonna talk to her.”

“Promise you won't be mean?” Ruby asked. “Or scary?”

“Ugh, you're really making my job hard over here.”

“Please?” Ruby wheedled.

“Fine!” Yang gave in, tossing her arms up in defeat. “Just take away all my sisterly fun why don't you.”

“Thanks!” Ruby said with a grin, before going back to work. It was silent for a little while, and she'd made some good progress on verifying that the fuel system for the engine boost was still in good shape when Yang broke the comfortable silence between them.

“So, Grimm huh.”

Ruby shuddered. “Yeah. It was kinda cool… and super scary. It was like a werewolf made out of slime, and we couldn't hurt it.”

“Well, hopefully the nuke did it in, then,” Yang said. “Did either of you get hurt?”

“Nope,” Ruby said. “It would fix anything we did to it, but it took a few seconds, so we just kinda shot and cut it up and ran. That's when we met Penny.”

“Yeah, so what's the deal with that,” Yang said.

“Well, she was damaged, and I always wanted a robot friend, so…” Ruby said.

Yang chuckled. “You did, didn't you? That was always what you came back with when I said a best friend had to be able to talk.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said quietly.

“Why didn't you want me to go over to the other ship with you?” Yang finally asked. “I know Weiss can take care of herself, but I'm a much better fighter. And I know you didn't want me to stay just to keep this ship safe. So why?”

Ruby was silent for a long time, working steadily at her maintenance, replacing damaged parts and testing the rest, making sure that everything was ready for what was to come. Yang didn't say anything, giving her the time and space to get her thoughts in order and make her answer.

Finally Ruby spoke. “You always protect me. You've always taken care of me, ever since mom… didn't come back. And you… you even lost an arm doing it.”

“I'd much rather have my little sister than an arm,” Yang said. Ruby stopped working, turning to face her, and Yang smiled, flexing her metal fist. “Besides, this thing ain't so bad. I mean, it took some getting used to, but it can do some pretty cool stuff, you know?”

“I know how much you hated it,” Ruby said quietly. “I used to listen at your door after you lost your arm… every night. You had so many nightmares.”

“I didn't know you knew about that,” Yang said, her voice just as soft. “I didn't want you to know.”

“You're my sister,” Ruby said thickly. “And it was all my fault.”

“No, no, no, no,” Yang said, moving over and pulling Ruby into a fierce hug. “Never, ever think that.”

“You lost your arm because of me,” Ruby rasped, barely able to speak from both the lump in her throat and the too tight hug.

“I lost my arm doing what I wanted to do,” Yang said. “It wasn't your fault.”

“If I hadn't gone to the docks-”

“Nope, gonna cut you off right there,” Yang said firmly. “You had no way to know those guys were there. Patch'd always been safe… you had no way to know what you were walking in on. You were just doing what you always did, what me and dad and Uncle Qrow… what mom would've wanted you to do. Be happy. Explore. Have fun. You couldn't have known you'd walk into the middle of an arms deal like that.”

“Arms deal?” Ruby whispered.

“I guess we never really talked about it, did we?” Yang said rhetorically. “I was so caught up in my own stuff, trying to get used to being down an arm, and dad was still a mess from mom, and what happened to me just made it worse. I guess no one ever really talked about it with you.

“Ruby… some criminals were using Patch as a quiet place to make a deal. I don't know who they worked for, but I'll always remember their faces. The huge guy with the beard, the scrawny guy with the big mustache. I've kept my eye out for wanted posters of them ever since, but… anyway, when I heard shooting I ran in and I saved you, and yeah, it sucked, but it's a price I'm more than willing to pay to have my little sis with me. And it's not a price I had to pay because of you. I owe my arm to those asshole gun runners, whoever they were. None of this was your fault.”

Ruby couldn't say anything, she just cried into her sister's shoulder. Yang stroked her hair, humming softly, and slowly Ruby relaxed. Yang had been like a mother to her since her own died, and even as adults there was nowhere she felt safer than in her arms. Finally she calmed down and spoke, her voice thick from her tears. “I'm sorry.”

“There's nothing to be sorry about, Ruberdoodle,” Yang said. “I'm sorry I didn't realize how much you were hurting. You must've been holding that inside ever since I was hurt, huh?”

“No, it's not your fault. I didn't want you to know.”

“And it wasn't your fault it happened,” Yang said. “Sometimes feeling guilty isn't logical, or about who's really at fault. 'S just how you feel. But if I'm gonna try to stop feelin' bad about not noticing you hurting, then you've gotta promise me you'll try not to feel bad about my arm, okay?”

“Okay,” Ruby whispered.

They were silent for several minutes, and Ruby smiled, sinking into Yang's warmth. It felt freeing to have things out in the open, and maybe she'd learn not to feel guilty about what going to see the new ships that had arrived did one day. Until then, she could at least enjoy some cuddling with her sister. At least until they ran into a murderous terrorist in a few hours. Or until they ran into the men who'd hurt Yang, as her sister wasn't the only one who would always remember their faces.

Or until Yang opened her mouth again. “So how'd you and Weiss-y get together?”

“Yannng...” Ruby groaned, trying to pull away, only to be dragged back by her impossibly strong arms, flesh and metal.

“Come on, tell your big sis everything! I need to know!”

“No!” Ruby cried, struggling harder.

Yang began to tickle her. “Talk or I don't stop! Have you kissed?! Tell me!”

“Never!” Ruby shouted between giggles, finally getting enough room to start tickling back. The two women eventually dissolved into a laughing pile on the floor. “Thanks.”

“You're welcome, sis,” Yang said. “I still wanna know how it happened, though.”

“We just, you know… I guess we've been flirting a little for a while,” Ruby said.

Yang snorted. “More than a little. You kept it up long enough I was starting to doubt it'd really go anywhere, though.”

Ruby pouted. “It was hard! Weiss is so smart and cool and pretty and rich and awesome and has a cool sword, and a cool scar, and her eyes are so pretty, and her-”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Yang laughed. “You really like her, huh?”

“Yeah,” Ruby said, smiling.

“Good,” Yang said. “I'm really happy for you. But if she ever hurts you-”

“I know, I know,” Ruby said. “You'll pound her into Weiss-paste.”

“Damn straight.”

Ruby bit her lip. “So… what about Blake?”

Yang tensed up a little. “What about Blake?”

“You really liked her when you first met,” Ruby said. “Anything happening there?”

Yang hummed in thought. “She is really cool, and she's hot, too. I dunno, I'd like to, but she's been playing hard to get. Not sure if she's interested or not. Guess I'll just have to wait and find out.”

“You're not usually the 'wait and find out' type,” Ruby said. “You usually just hit on the next guy or girl if the first one's not interested.”

“Yeah, well… Blake's more interesting than most,” Yang said. “I guess I do kinda like her.”

“Then ask her out!” Ruby said.

“Maybe later,” Yang replied. “She must have some kinda history with this Adam Taurus guy, and she might want to get some light years away from him before I make any more moves.”

“ _More_ moves?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah, like I said, I can't tell if she's interested or not,” Yang said. “She hasn't said yes, but she hasn't said no, either.”

After another minute of silence Ruby finally stood, stretching. She felt lighter, and she wanted to spend more time with her sister. Not just a few hours, but a lifetime going on fun adventures together. She wanted to date Weiss, and be Yang's wing-woman with Blake, and see the stars from the core worlds all the way to the frontier. But to do all of that she had to live, which meant she had work to do.

Yang watched her for a while, until eventually she spoke up. “It's getting pretty late. Feel like some dinner?”

“I could eat when I get this done,” Ruby said.

“Alright, I'll go see what I can rustle up,” Yang said, hopping to her feet. “Gonna dig deep, see if I can find something yummy before we head into danger. I'll message ya in a bit.”

“Okay,” Ruby said distractedly.

That little bit passed faster than she'd expected, as she was just closing up another compartment when the intercom buzzed. “Hey sis, come on, grab some grub.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Penny suddenly asked, making Ruby jump and spin to look at the cartoon face on the monitors. “You need to eat and take a break before we reach the interception point.”

“Yeah, I guess… I think I've got most of the physical stuff done,” Ruby said. “Can you run checks on all the computer stuff? We need everything working perfect if we're gonna get through this.”

“Roger, friend Ruby,” Penny said, an arm appearing to salute her. “I'm maintenance ready!”

“Thanks!” Ruby said with a smile, giving the room one last look over. She'd checked and maintained all the major components of the engine boost, so with luck it would be ready to work again when they needed it. Everything appeared to be in place, and after securing her tools she trotted through the cargo bay to the mess.

Blake and Weiss were already at the table, murmuring quietly, while Yang was putting the finishing touches on the food. She took one glance at Ruby and pointed towards the sink. “Wash up!”

“I know, I know,” Ruby grumbled. The soap was harsh, but it did a good job of removing all of the grease and oil that had soaked her hands and arms, and when she was finally done she sat down next to Weiss, offering her a big smile.

“I know it's not the fanciest, but we're runnin' pretty low on… everything,” Yang said, bringing the first pair of plates over to the table. They were piled high with spaghetti, making Ruby drool. “Still, eat up!”

“Thank you,” Weiss said, carefully picking up her utensils and poking them into the red sauced mass of pasta.

“Fanks sis!” Ruby mumbled, noodles already hanging out of her mouth.

“Don't talk with your mouth full!” Weiss scolded her with a glare.

Ruby slurped up the noodles, swallowing them down quickly. “But they're so good!”

Weiss grimaced and grabbed a napkin, reaching over and cleaning Ruby's face. It was weird, but Ruby found herself blushing under the tender ministrations. She blushed even harder when Yang whistled loudly. “Save it for private, you two.”

Weiss jumped in her seat, turning somehow even paler, and then bright red herself. She glared angrily at Yang, tossing the napkin at her and crossing her arms. “There was nothing untoward about that, you brute!”

“So that wasn't rich girl foreplay?” Yang asked innocently.

Weiss froze, her eyes narrowing. She tensed her body, obviously about to lunge at Yang when Ruby dropped her fork and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. “Don't try to kill her! It's what she wants!”

“It's what _I_ want!” Weiss shouted, struggling against Ruby's arms.

Yang laughed loudly. “Okay, I get it now.”

“Get what?” Blake asked.

“How these two work together,” Yang said with a grin. “I can get behind this after all.”

“Excuse me?!” Weiss objected. “I don't need you to get 'behind' anything!”

Yang narrowed her eyes. “Oh? Does that mean you _don't_ want big sis's blessing? Because I've got this real neat 'break her and I break you' speech all ready, with tons of visual aids and example punishments.”

“Yang!” Ruby shouted.

Yang shrugged. “Like I said, I'm fine with this now. So I won't need to tell you about how my metal arm can get below your ribs, rip out your entrails, tie them to the airlock, and send you trailing behind the ship like a streamer if you hurt her.”

“Yang!”

“What, I'm just saying that I _won't_ have to mention how many bones her fingers have, and how much time it'll take to break every single one with a ball-peen hammer,” Yang said innocently. Well, innocently for Yang, which wasn't very innocent at all.

“Stop teasing them,” Blake said with a subtle smile. “Don't you want to watch them fumbling through things?”

Yang made a face. “I dunno, I don't really wanna watch my sis 'fumbling' with any of Weiss's 'things'. And really not the other way. Plus, it's really fun messing with them.”

“Okay, Weiss,” Ruby said, letting go and taking a deep breath. “You can strangle her… a little.”

Weiss just harrumphed and turned up her nose, sitting down and picking up her fork again. “As if I'd give her the satisfaction.”

“Translation,” Yang said. “She's scared.”

“Not at all,” Weiss sniffed. “I simply don't believe in lowering myself to the level of a barnyard animal.”

“Buk-buk-buk-buk-buk,” Yang said, making her best chicken noises.

“I rest my case,” Weiss said dryly, before finally taking a bite of the meal.

After that the four ate and chatted, with a minimal amount of scolding from Weiss whenever they tried to do both at once (which was mostly Yang, who was doing it on purpose to annoy her). For the entire time the upcoming danger was forgotten, and they simply laughed and enjoyed each other's company. If anything, the approaching enemy made them the simple joys of family and friendship all the sweeter.

It couldn't last forever, though. Yang was in the middle of a story about their uncle when Penny's voice sheepishly interrupted them. “Um, everyone?”

“What is it, Penny?” Weiss asked, her smile fading away. The happiness drained out of the room entirely, as Yang stood and began gathering the empty plates and carrying them over to the sink.

“We're entering real time communications range of the _Wilt_ ,” she said. “It will not be long until we enter the edge of their weapons range as well.”

“Thank you, Penny,” Weiss said gravely. “We'll be on the bridge presently.”

Yang finished securing the dishes, and then she and Blake hurried ahead. Weiss moved slower, letting the other two go first, and Ruby stayed with her. When the others had entered the bridge and its door closed Weiss finally came to a stop.

“Weiss?” Ruby asked.

Before she could say anything else she was pushed against the wall, with Weiss's lips crashing into hers. She yelped a little from the impact, but she quickly began to kiss back. It was a desperate kiss, one trying to convey feelings neither of them were quite ready to talk about, full of the fear that this might be the last time they would have together.

It ended sooner than Ruby would've liked, with Weiss pulling back and pressing their foreheads against each other. They stayed like that for a moment, catching their breath, before Weiss spoke softly. “Do you really think this will work?”

Ruby frowned, and then shrugged. “I dunno. It's got a chance, though, right?”

“I hope so,” Weiss said. “I'm not sure how much the _Myrtenaster_ can take, though. She's old, and the _Wilt_ probably has the best weaponry available. We might get torn to pieces.”

“If we do… if we do I'll tape the engines back together if I have to,” Ruby said. “Then when we get to Vale we can get everything fixed up better than new. We just have to make it to the wormhole.”

Weiss gave her one last kiss, then pulled away, straightening her back and putting her chin in the air. Without another word she strolled to the bridge, her every move expressing how in command she was. She was ready.

Ruby just had to hope they really were.


	27. Joust

“Incoming video call from the _Wilt_ ,” Penny said.

Weiss had been expecting the call, but that didn't mean that she was ready for it. She knew _of_ Adam Taurus, but until reaching Patch she'd never encountered any open members of the White Fang in person. The prospect of speaking to one of their most notorious leaders was frightening, but she needed to look confident if she wanted her crew to follow her through this suicidal plan. Well, it was their suicidal plan, but she still needed to be a proper captain, especially if it was the last thing she did.

Raising her scroll, she hit a few virtual buttons, bringing up the video feed. It swirled green for a few moments, the same logo Penny used when she was busy with something, until finally it cleared, connecting her to the other ship.

The screen was dominated by a face wearing a white half mask with red lines on it. It covered the man's eyes and forehead, but left his mouth visible. He had heavily gelled, spiky red hair, and horns at his temples revealed his Faunus heritage.

“Schnee,” he growled.

Weiss took a deep breath to steady herself, carefully keeping her face impassive and her voice unimpressed. “Adam Taurus, I presume?”

“Your recognition makes this easier,” Adam said. “Surrender. Now.”

“No,” Weiss said.

“You might have value as a hostage,” Adam said. “If you don't surrender you'll only die screaming.”

Weiss shook her head. “I do know some things about you. I know that you wouldn't treat a human prisoner well. Surrendering just makes killing me easier, and probably more painful.”

“Painful?” Adam snarled. “What do you know about pain, Schnee?”

“Everyone knows about pain,” Weiss said. “Suffering doesn't have a unit of measure; everyone experiences it in their own way. It's foolish to think that anyone hasn't suffered in this galaxy.”

“You think you've suffered?” Adam chuckled darkly, before reaching up and pulling off his mask. “You, a _Schnee?_ Let me show you the true suffering of the Schnee.”

Weiss couldn't believe what she saw. Not that she was simply surprised, but for a moment she wondered if she was trapped in a nightmare, or if he was using some real time video editing trick to change his appearance. That seemed even more unlikely that what she was seeing, however, even if what he revealed flew in the face of what she thought she knew about her family.

Branded over one eye was the symbol of the SDC. How could he have gotten that burn? Did someone create a brand and use it on their Faunus workers on some remote asteroid mine? Even if they had, why would they partially blind an otherwise capable worker? Weiss felt sick again as she realized the cruel calculation in her own line of thought, which was side tracked by how wasteful it was, not simply appalled by the horror of it. Maybe she was the Schnee her father had raised her to be, not the Schnee her grandfather had been, after all.

“I will destroy the Schnee, the SDC, Atlas… all the _humans_ who profit from the suffering of the Faunus,” Adam snarled. His good eye burned with a mad hatred that frightened her even so far from his physical reach, and with every passing second his ship came steadily closer to Weiss's.

“Adam,” Blake said. She'd obviously connected her screen to the video chat, something that Weiss was privately grateful for; she had no idea how to react to what she'd just seen, and she couldn't think of anything to say.

“Hello, my love,” Adam said. His words were like poison, sweet but cruel, and the hate didn't leave his eye despite focusing on the other Faunus.

“Why are you out here?” Blake asked.

“Following you,” Adam said. “The White Fang you slipped away from sent courier drones.”

“But how did you follow us?” Blake asked.

He chuckled darkly. “You've always been obvious, my love, except for once. I knew you were on the Schnee's ship, and I knew which wormhole you left through. Our spies on Atlas heard that Weiss Schnee left with a cargo hold full of Dust, and there's nowhere better to sell it in this direction than Vale. I just had to guess what route you'd take from Beacon to Vale if you were trying to avoid running into anyone, and then get ahead of you.”

“There are hundreds of paths, maybe thousands,” Blake said.

Adam shook his head. “There are that many that other people could've taken, but not you, my love. I knew you would pick the route that took you ever closer to Vale without doubling back or entering any system with a colony, base, or trade route. Then I just had to guess which one of those routes you took, and the answer was obvious; it would be the one that took the least time, while still being the most circuitous path possible. I know you, my love. You don't think you could be as close as we are without me knowing how you think?”

Blake was silent, her shoulders tense. After a long moment she spoke. “Why are you following me? I just want to get away from the White Fang.”

He smiled, the expression lacking any warmth or happiness. “Why would I follow you, my love? You're so clever, but you've never bothered to understand anyone else. I'm following you because you were _mine_ and you betrayed me. I won't rest until I've returned you to my side, and you've paid the price for your betrayal.”

“Price?” Blake asked.

“I'm going to take away everything you love,” he said. “I'm going to kill your friends, and your family, and your hopes and your dreams. I'm going to destroy everything, and when you have nothing left, I'm going to destroy _you_.”

“You're a monster,” Weiss whispered.

He turned his head so that the SDC brand was easily seen. “I'm a monster? If I am I was made that way in the image of my creators. And I'm going to return everything you gave me tenfold.”

“Please don't do this,” Blake said. “Please… take me. Just don't hurt them.”

“Blake, no!” Yang shouted.

“You'd turn yourself in for _her_?” Adam asked. “For a Schnee?”

“For my friends,” Blake said. “Even Weiss.”

“All the more reason to kill them all,” Adam snarled. He put his mask back on, hiding both the brand and the mad look in his remaining eye. He then leaned back in his seat, seemingly calm and poised. “We're at the edge of weapons range. Surrender now, or we will _make_ you.”

“You're already going to kill us, so why would we surrender?” Weiss asked.

He smiled coldly. “Why struggle pointlessly? Just accept death.”

“Never!” Ruby shouted.

He shrugged. “End transmission.”

Weiss' scroll, and the other screens he had been displayed on around the bridge, went blank, only to be replaced first with the swirling green pattern, and then the cartoon version of Penny. “We're in firing range, and he is attempting to lock on. I'm employing _Mytenaster's_ comm array to provide electronic warfare to the best of my ability, but this vessel lacks the proper tools of a warship.”

“Buy as much time as you can,” Weiss said tersely. “Is the engine boost ready?”

“Yup,” Ruby said. “Yang can hit it once we're close enough.”

Weiss pressed a few buttons, replacing the picture of Penny, who had a look of intense focus on her face, to the external cameras. It took a few moments, but eventually she zoomed in on the White Fang ship.

It was broad and thin, shaped like a half moon, with the flat part being the front of the ship. All along that flat area were small weapons turrets, which while Ruby might recognize them, she had no idea what any of them did, other than potentially destroy her ship and kill them all. None of them appeared to be doing anything, as the ship was still trying to find a firing solution, a process made much more difficult by Penny using her artificial intelligence processing abilities to jam its lock on.

“Alright, we're in the right spot, hit it Yang,” Blake said.

“Hitting it!” Yang crowed, and the ship shook as they were pressed back into their seats.

They were already moving extremely quickly, and the engine boost increased their acceleration even more. The _Wilt_ was also moving quite fast, and the range at which their weapons were dangerous wasn't that large. Combined with Penny's effective jamming, and they actually passed the other ship before it could fire, making Yang whoop as Weiss changed her display to show the chase cameras.

Adam didn't just give up. The other ship span on its axis, keeping its main guns facing them and its engines pointed directly away, starting to bleed off speed so that they could continue the pursuit. They also no longer cared about getting perfect firing solutions, as Penny announced moments later.

“I've been able to keep them from achieving a full lock, but they have begun firing anyway,” Penny said. “At this range they may be able to hit. Brace yourselves.”

A tiny green timer appeared on the top left of Weiss' video feed, showing eighty-two seconds until they reached the end of combat range. Biting her lip, Weiss watched the weapon turrets twitch and move about, obviously firing, although the lasers, which she guessed them to be, weren't visible in a vacuum. All she could do was sit and hope as the timer slowly counted down.

When it hit twenty seconds there was a loud explosion, shaking the ship and knocking the scroll out of her hands. There was a shriek of tortured metal and damaged systems, and the lights flickered, dying and being replaced with red emergency lighting. The sound ended a moment later, and everything was suddenly far too quiet, and the only thing keeping Weiss in her seat was her restraints as the gravity died.

“Damage to the engines,” Penny announced. “I am unable to determine the full extent of the damage, but they have shut down completely. A power surge has also taken out several other systems.”

There was a long moment of silence, finally broken by Yang shouting. “Damn it! You mean we made it that far only to get stopped by a lucky hit!”

“We're not stopped yet,” Ruby said, unbuckling her harness.

“We have now left weapons range,” Penny said. “If Ruby cannot get the engines online Adam will be able to board us in seven hours and twenty-two minutes.”

“I'll help,” Weiss said, unbuckling. “You two be ready the second we get the engines working.”

“Be sure to acquire spacesuits,” Penny said. “The engine room has lost cabin pressure and is uninhabitable.”

Ruby had already launched herself towards the bridge door, and Weiss followed suit. Her lessons had come in handy, as Ruby didn't need any help as the two of them entered the dimly lit central corridor, and opened the main airlock's locker to retrieve spacesuits. She needed some help getting it on, as even Weiss found putting one on difficult in zero gravity, but eventually they both were dressed and wearing their helmets with the comms linked up.

“Don't worry,” Ruby said. “I know we can fix it. We're not dead yet!”

“You just don't want to admit your plan didn't work,” Weiss teased.

Ruby pouted. “It worked! Mostly. They just got off a lucky shot. Once we get this fixed everything will work out.”

“Then let's get to work,” Weiss said, using the frame of the airlock door to launched herself down the corridor towards the mess and the engine room.

Weiss was a little surprised that the mess hall wasn't a complete, well, mess. Yang taking the time to secure the plates after the meal meant that nothing had broken, and there were no hazards that they had to avoid floating in midair. There were a few crumbs, and what looked like the wilted leaves of strawberry that had been dropped at some point, but otherwise the room was clear.

The cargo hold still had air, and everything was still secure, making Weiss breath a sigh of relief. Dust was pretty stable, but if a high powered laser had hit the hold it could've destroyed the entire ship. The loss of the cargo also would've meant her ruin, as even if she escaped alive she would've been left broke and unable to repair the ship without the Dust to sell.

When they reached the engine room, the door refused to open when Ruby hit the button. She tried again, and then a third time, before giving up and looking at Weiss. “Um…”

“Remember the spacesuits?” Weiss huffed. “It's probably exposed to hard vacuum.”

“Oh, right,” Ruby said with a frown, before launching herself across the wide open cargo bay in the direction of the rear airlock. Weiss followed, reaching it first and opening the inner doors, with Ruby following a moment later.

Weiss activated her magboots, sticking to the floor and walking over to the door as the airlock cycled, pumping out the air in preparation for opened the external doors. Ruby did the same, and a moment later they opened, revealing a beautiful view of the stars. They both paused for a long moment to appreciate it, Ruby even taking her hand, before as one they made their way out of the ship.

The rear airlock was on the port side of the ship, and everything looked normal as they stepped out. Ruby led the way along the side until they were on top, but only when they reached the starboard side did the damage begin to become visible. They had taken a single hit from one of the high powered military lasers the patrol frigate had sported, the Dust forcefields doing nothing against light, letting the weapon carve a hole into the starboard side of the engines. The hole was small, as was typically the case for laser weapons, but deep, and apparently had been lucky enough to hit some important systems.

Ruby stood over the hole, a nearly perfect circle with melted edges around a foot in diameter, and peered into it. “Well, there's the problem.”

“Can you fix it?”

“I can,” Ruby said confidently. “Or, well… I can jury-rig something together. It'll at least let us get moving again.”

“Then let's get to work,” Weiss said. “What do I need to do?”

“First things first, we need to get the hull patched so we can get into the engine room,” Ruby said. “Can you go back to the airlock and grab a patch kit? I'm gonna check for anything else we need to fix out here.”

Time spent spacewalking flows strangely. The only sounds were her own breaths echoing loudly in her helmet, the pounding of her heart, and the occasional words Ruby spoke. While her girlfriend normally filled any silence with endless chatter, when she was working on something she finally focused and became quiet, and while normally Weiss would appreciate that, the endless tedium of serving as a gofer and extra pair of hands wore away at her, making her wish that Ruby would just babble about _something_.

In the end over an hour was spent on the outside of the ship. Much of it was with Ruby buried up to her waist in one maintenance hatch or another, fixing damage that could only be reached that way, or sticking a slender arm deep into the laser hole to spot weld some part, or to run some bypass wiring. Only when she'd finished all of that did she finally use the patch kit Weiss had retrieved. The patch was a dull orange color, leaving an ugly wart on the side of _Myrtenaster_ , but they would no longer be leaking air at least.

“Okay, let's go inside,” Ruby said. “Penny?”

“Yes, Ruby?” the android said, her sudden voice making Weiss flinch, having forgotten that she was listening.

“Can you pump some air into the engine room?”

“I am life support ready!” Penny said brightly. By the time they reached the airlock to head in she spoke up again. “The patch is holding; engine room will be fully pressurized shortly. It is recommended that we visit a planet to restore our air supply soon.”

“Thanks, Penny,” Ruby said.

This time the engine room opened when Ruby hit the button, and upon assuring themselves that there was plenty of air they both took their helmets off. The room stank of burned metal and blown fuses, making their noses burn, but Ruby ignored it, kicking off the wall to float over to examine the damage.

There was a lot of damage. The laser had cut deep into the engine room, directly burning many systems and causing others to overload and short out. It would probably require weeks in a dry dock to fully repair the damage from that one hit, but Ruby didn't seem deterred, setting right to work.

Weiss once again acted as an assistant, doing simple jobs and helping hold things while Ruby worked on the bigger damage. She spent most of her time replacing burned out electronics, glancing up constantly as Ruby scrambled all over the engines, trying to find some way of getting them back online. It felt like a hopeless task, and as hours slipped away Weiss could almost feel Adam Taurus looming over them.

“Ruby?” she said quietly.

“Did you finish with that blown circuit?” Ruby mumbled, both arms buried up to the shoulder in some access panel.

“Yes,” Weiss said. “Do you… can you really fix this in time?”

Ruby scoffed. “You have to ask?”

“It's been hours,” Weiss said, looking around the room. They hadn't taken the time to carefully put anything away, and without gravity that meant that the air was full of floating wires and circuits, broken bits of metal, and even tools waiting to be retrieved. If anything, the engine room looked worse than it had when they'd first entered, as at least the vacuum had sucked out any debris. “We still have to change course to reach one of the wormholes, and Adam's been chasing us the whole time.”

“Then it's a good thing I'm ready to do… _this_ ,” Ruby said, flipping a switch.

There was a loud, grinding groan, then a deep moan, like someone drawing a bow across an upright bass the size of a building. It built and built, and Ruby bit her lip, launching herself over to another control panel and frantically hitting buttons and flipping switches. The sound began to grow higher and higher pitched, until it made Weiss' teeth ache. Finally, just when it made her want to scream, the entire ship shuddered, and the sound faded into the steady hum of the engines.

“We did it!” Ruby shouted, turning to face Weiss triumphantly, only to be pulled into a fierce kiss.

Ruby had done it. They could fly again.


	28. Bigger Fish

“We're not going to make it,” Blake said.

“How?” Ruby demanded, her voice tinny through the comms. “I got the engines working again!”

She had actually gotten more than just the engines repaired, and she was still working hard in the engine room. After a celebratory kiss, Weiss had been called to the bridge by Blake, and before she could even reach it gravity returned (a little painfully, as Weiss hadn't been expecting it), and by the time she reached her destination the main lights were back on as well.

“It took too long, and the engines aren't operating at full power,” Blake said. “Accelerating through the entire system gave us too much speed, and we're going to overshoot our target. It's going to be close, but the _Wilt_ will reach the wormhole before we get back to it.”

Penny had several simulations running on Blake's monitors, and Weiss bit her lip as she watched them unfold. _Myrtenaster_ had flown like a fired bullet through the void of space during the hours it had taken her and Ruby to fix the engines, their course still splitting the difference between the two wormholes. Now that they could maneuver again they had to curve their trajectory to reach a wormhole, but they couldn't accelerate fast enough to reach it directly, instead having to take a broad, curving path that overshot their target and spiraled them back around to it. This took a great amount of time, and while they'd been out of commission the _Wilt_ had not been idle, bleeding its own momentum so that it could pursue them directly.

Between Blake and Penny they had examined and discarded dozens of possible routes, but the end result was the same. There were no planetary bodies to slingshot around close enough, no hiding places, nowhere to run. In a matter of hours they would get caught, and this time Adam wouldn't let them get away.

“If the engines aren't powerful enough I'll fix that!” Ruby said, a hint of desperation in her voice. “I'll get the engine boost working again!”

“Can the engines take the strain?” Weiss asked.

Ruby didn't say anything for a long moment. “I'll make sure they do.”

“Sis…” Yang trailed off.

“I can do this,” Ruby said firmly.

The three on the bridge looked at each other, before finally Yang nodded. Weiss closed her eyes and sat down in her captain's chair. “Ruby… do your best.”

“I will!” she said.

After that they could do nothing but wait. No one spoke, and the silence on the bridge became oppressive as they waited for something, anything to change. They had settled on the most straightforward route, a curved path that took them straight to the wormhole they wanted to pass through. It was only a question of whether Ruby could give them enough acceleration to tighten the course and beat the _Wilt_ , or if they would be caught by the White Fang instead.

“Penny,” Weiss said, breaking the silence. “Does the ship have any music? Classical?”

“Of course!” Penny said. “One moment.”

Soft piano began to fill the bridge, and Weiss leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes to listen to it. She doubted that the others appreciated her taste in music, but it was better than the heavy silence. Her reverie was broken by Ruby's voice. “I got a little more! I don't think it'll be very stable, so keep an eye on the readouts! You'll probably have to push the speed in bursts.”

“Awesome, sis!” Yang shouted, accelerating them a little more.

Weiss opened her eyes and watched the simulations Penny quickly threw together on Blake's screens. If the ship continued at their current speed they'd just beat the _Wilt_. Every little bit less they could sustain it cut into their margin of error, or cost them everything, and even getting through the wormhole was no guarantee of safety. Ruby's efforts might simply change which desolate star system they met their fate in.

Over the next several hours Ruby would report in, letting them know about any extra speed she'd forced out of the damaged engines, and Yang would tell her whenever she had to back off the power as the readouts began to enter the danger zone. Each time either would happen Weiss would open her eyes to watch Penny update their course, each time vacillating back and forth between making it and getting caught. All the while she didn't say a word, simply listening to the piano music andwaiting to see if today was her last day alive.

About half an hour before the end of the chase Weiss pulled out her scroll, checked the course (they were running just ahead of death at the moment), and then brought up the camera view of the White Fang ship. The wormhole lay directly between the two ships, and it was only that coincidence that let Weiss see it. She zoomed out her camera, focusing on the empty space where the wormhole waited as she saw a tiny drone pass through it and pause between the two ships.

It was a small, obviously unmanned, but it sat still, unlike a courier drone which would've immediately oriented on the next wormhole in its path and flown for it. After a long moment the drone accelerated in reverse, returning through the wormhole once again. Weiss blinked in confusion, before something she'd read came to mind.

Military ships frequently launched specially designed probes through unsecured wormholes to make sure there wasn't an ambush waiting for them on the other side. Penny had said that she'd sent a courier drone requesting aid for the _Marionette_ some time ago…

And then a ship appeared through the wormhole. It was big, much larger than her own trader or Adam Taurus' patrol frigate. It was white in color, with delicate yet sharply angled lines, and a long, thin body. Atlesian Naval combat ships, while beautiful, were built entirely around their main armaments, with many ships, like the light cruiser that had just appeared, being in many ways a giant cannon that had grown engines to move.

Weiss rapidly stabbed buttons on her scroll, bringing up an open comm channel. “Naval ship, this is Captain Weiss Schnee of the free trader _Myrtenaster_. We are under attack by the White Fang terrorist Adam Taurus and require immediate assistance!”

The _Wilt_ had apparently also been monitoring the open channel, as several long seconds later, before the Atlesian ship could respond, Adam himself replied, his masked face filling her scroll once again. “My quarrel isn't with you today, Atlas. Leave me to my prey and you can go in peace.”

Weiss bit her lip nervously, until the other ship slowly turned to face the White Fang vessel, bringing its massive spinal cannon to bear. The scroll then beeped, indicating another open message, this one from the Naval ship. With shaking fingers Weiss pressed the button.

It was another video message, and for a moment Weiss thought her heart would stop when she saw the face on the screen. Pale, stern and beautiful, with white bangs covering part of her face and cold blue eyes, Winter Schnee, Weiss' elder sister, glared into the camera on her bridge. “This is Commander Winter Schnee of the Atlesian Navy Light Cruiser _Main Gauche_. While my mission does not involve the White Fang, I will not permit terrorists to harass Atlesian shipping. Leave or be destroyed.”

There was a long pause of almost a minute, before Adam sent a reply message. Even with his mask on it was obvious that he was furious, his jaw clenched and his words spat out. “I will not abandon my hunt, not when I'm this close. If you won't leave then you'll be destroyed as well.”

Winter wasn't one to make idle threats, or to issue demands multiple times. She had taught Weiss many things, including how to fight, and she had never suffered foolishness even from the only person who really had felt like family. She didn't even bother to send another message, responding with action instead.

A broad variety of weapons had been invented for fighting between starships. Missiles of various sorts were powerful, but could be stopped by point defense systems. Mass accelerators were cheap, effective, and long ranged, but the metal slugs they fired could be blocked by shields and so often required lengthy battles to wear opponents down. Lasers ignored normal defenses, but rapidly attenuated with range, making them only useful when close to their target.

And then there were particle beams. The latest technology developed by Atlas, they were huge, bulky weapons, requiring enormous, high energy particle accelerators, which used complex Dust generated force fields to accelerate neutrons to relativistic speeds, sending continuous streams of particles until the system needed to turn off to let the capacitors recharge for another shot. The beam, being composed of particles, actually were stopped by the shields of enemy ships, but the amount of energy involved simply overwhelmed them in moments.

Unlike lasers, the neutron beam stayed coherent for incredible distances, and so the _Main Gauche_ could fire its spinal cannon, despite being far, far away from the _Wilt's_ ability to respond. The first sign that anything was happening was a sudden flash of light near the center of the _Wilt's_ hull, with hexagonal flickers forming all around that point as the Dust forcefield tried to protect the ship from the sudden hit. In a matter of moments the flickers stopped as the shields failed, and then the particle beam impacted the ship.

For a moment it looked like someone had lit thermite on the hull of the White Fang ship, as the particle beam superheated the thick armor of the patrol frigate. Inches of high tech material failed in under a second, and before anyone on the other ship could respond a superheated hole had been bored through them from stem to stern, with the particle beam erupting through the back between the engines. The beam then began to pan up, beginning the saw the ship in half.

Unfortunately the light cruiser couldn't sustain its particle beam for more than a few seconds at a time, but it still left a hole twelve feet tall all the way through the _Wilt._ It was a tough ship, somehow avoiding destruction, and whoever was at the helm wasn't so blind as Adam Taurus, as the ship immediately broke off its approach, spinning in place to that it was accelerating perpendicular to its former path, trying to curve away from certain death as fast as possible.

The _Wilt_ then fired multiple canisters from launchers along its side, which exploded into enormous fields of tiny reflective particles. Called sandcasters, they were one of the only defenses against lasers, and it would make it a little more difficult to hit the target with particle beams as well, even though the weapon could cut straight through without losing too much energy. They didn't stop there, however, launched dozens of small decoy drones, each transmitting all along the electromagnetic spectrum, trying to break the sensor lock the _Main Gauche_ had established.

No one said anything for a long moment, unable to take in what had happened. Penny finally broke the silence, her happy voice filling the bridge. “Weiss, incoming transmission from the _Main Gauche_.”

“Put it through,” Weiss said.

It was a real time communication, Winter once again filling the screen. Her eyes were hard as always as she took in Weiss, the look making her straighten her posture. “Greetings, sister.”

If Weiss had been standing she would've curtsied. Instead she nodded, a small smile on her face. “Winter! Your presence honors us.”

“I had heard that you had left Atlas with grandfather's ship and a cargo hold full of SDC Dust,” Winter said neutrally. “Not only that, but I find you being attacked by one of the most notorious terrorists in the galaxy.”

Weiss blushed, looking away, her eyes finding Blake and Yang, who were staring at her like they were watching their own personal soap opera. Her quick glare did nothing to the shameless duo, so she returned her attention to her sister. “It has been a… somewhat more difficult trip than I had been a anticipating.”

“We will have to speak in person,” Winter said, looking at her controls. “You're heading towards the wormhole I recently left… you are en route to Vale, correct?”

“I am,” Weiss said.

Winter nodded. “My ship will attempt to pursue Adam Taurus, but we have other duties to attend to in system. I should be able to catch up to you in a few days, however.”

“If the job you are here for involves the _Marionette_ , I'm afraid that you won't find much,” Weiss said.

Winter, who had obviously been reading status reports as she prepared to sign off, returned her focus to her sister, her eyes sharp and probing. “What do you mean?”

“When we entered the system we heard their automated distress signal,” Weiss said. “We… encountered some difficulties, and eventually the self destruct was activated. I'm sorry to report the crew had already been killed.”

“I see,” Winter said. “Then we will be catching up to you sooner than I had anticipated. Until then.”

“Goodbye-” Weiss started, only to stop with a sigh as Winter terminated the real time communication.

The bridge was silent for a moment, until Yang spoke up. “So… that was your sister?”

“Yes,” Weiss said, smiling slightly. “She's frequently busy, but she's the only family member I know who truly cares for me.”

“It should be interesting meeting her,” Yang said tactfully.

That made Weiss stand, suddenly energized again. Not only were they not dying, but her sister was coming to see her! She had too much to do to be tired. “Once we pass through the wormhole set a course for the next jump, and then we need to get to work.”

“Work?” Yang said. “We just survived, princess! All we need to do is celebrate!”

“Wrong!” Weiss said, pointing at her dramatically. “We need to get every inch of this ship cleaned up and ship shape. My sister is coming, and everything has to be perfect!”

What followed stuck in the nightmares of Weiss's crew for years to come. More than Grimm, more than an implacable terrorist with a warship, the most horrible thing they encountered that day was Weiss in full 'impress Winter' mode. She ran from room to room where she'd assigned them to work, and every time it looked like they were thinking about slacking off she would scream at them until they gave in to preserve their hearing. Only Ruby actually cared about pleasing Weiss after the first few minutes, and even she was looking for a hole to crawl into and hide as her girlfriend became increasingly maniacal.

And grow increasingly unhinged about it Weiss did. The ship was ancient and in need of the kind of serious overhaul that could only be accomplished in a shipyard. The entire engine room was coated in grease, and that was before a hole had been bored through it by a laser, the halls had been dirt encrusted for a generation, and the walls, which were once a bright white, now had a permanent dinge no matter how much effort was spent cleaning them.

It was only when Penny reported that Winter's ship was approaching and would be upon them in another two hours that Ruby finally grabbed Weiss and pulled her into a hug. “What are you doing?” Weiss objected, struggling to get away and get back to scrubbing the wall again. She wasn't really making any progress, but she had to get it clean. She had to!

“Weiss!” Ruby shouted, shaking her back and forth. “You've got to calm down! Winter is coming! She's gonna be here real soon-ish! The ship can't get any cleaner!”

“But it has to,” Weiss said frantically. “You don't know what my sister is like! Everything has to be perfect!”

“Then shouldn't you get ready?” Ruby asked. “You look like you've spent the last few hours wearing a spacesuit and scrubbing the walls… 'cause you have been. That's not going to look perfect!”

Weiss looked down at herself. It was true, she was a mess. She'd gone right from helping Ruby fix the engines, to sitting tensely on the bridge, then to cleaning the ship without even bothering to change. She was a disaster.

“Fine,” Weiss said with a sigh, slumping against Ruby. “It needed to be perfect.”

“If she's anything like my big sis she won't care about the little stuff,” Ruby said. “She just wants you to be okay.”

“But I'm a captain now,” Weiss whispered. “I'm a bad captain if I can't keep my ship up to the proper standards.”

“You're a great captain!” Ruby said. “Now go take a shower! You kinda stink.”

“Excuse you!” Weiss said, pulling back with a glare.

Ruby just grinned cheekily at her. “I'll make sure the others get ready, too, okay?”

“Ugh, fine,” Weiss grumbled. “But you'd better look your best! My sister will most likely be unhappy that I'm involved with one of my crew. If she thinks you're some kind of unkempt ragamuffin she will be most displeased.”

Ruby gulped, before saluting. “Aye aye, captain!”

With that Weiss sighed and looked up and down the ship's main corridor. Hours of work, and the only thing they'd really accomplished was cleaning up things that hadn't been properly secured when they'd lost gravity. The ship was a mess, and as much as she wanted to tear it all apart and have it replaced with a shiny new interior when they reached port… it was her home now. It was where she'd met some of her first true friends, where she'd grown close to Ruby, where they'd all laughed and joked and become a family.

With one last look around she headed to her quarters. Fortunately she'd kept what few possessions she had in the cabinets and drawers, as those had kept them in place even when the ship lost gravity or maneuvered sharply. A few minutes were spent remaking her bed and cleaning up a few odds and ends, and then she was ready to shower.

If the _Myrtenaster_ was a bit of mess, then she had to look perfect. Ruby was probably right about Winter caring more about her than the ship, but… she'd wanted to impress her. Winter meant the world to her, and being the best captain she could be was a part of that.

She just hoped she'd manage in other ways.


	29. Inspection

Meeting your girlfriend's family was always nerve-racking, even when they hadn't been dating for very long. What really scared Ruby wasn't just that, though, but the way Weiss was acting. After hours of frantically whipping them into (fruitlessly) cleaning every inch of the ship, Ruby had finally gotten her to stop and let them get ready, leading to Weiss, dressed in her very best white dress, standing in front of the airlock muttering to herself while endlessly smoothing her already wrinkle-free skirt.

“It's gonna be okay,” Ruby whispered. She didn't need to whisper, but it felt appropriate.

“I just… Winter doesn't accept half measures, so this needs to be perfect,” Weiss said quietly. “I need her to know that I'm okay, that I can do this… that she doesn't have to worry about me.”

“Then don't look like you're worried,” Ruby said, taking her girlfriend's hand. “We're good, so we just have to let her know that.”

Weiss took a deep breath, before squeezing the hand and finally relaxing. “You're right. It's just… she wasn't always there, but she always _cared_.”

Before Ruby could think of anything to say the ship shuddered, and a dull clank was transmitted through the metal of the hull as the boarding tube made contact. Neither said anything, Weiss just squeezing her hand tighter as the minutes crawled by, until they could hear the airlock cycling. Only then did Weiss let go of her hand, straightening her skirt one last time as she stiffened her posture like she had a steel rod for a spine.

Winter Schnee looked much like Weiss, with long white hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and sharply beautiful features. She was much taller however, with impressive curves, nicely hinted at by the elaborate white, gray and blue naval uniform she was wearing. Even without the curved Dust Blade on her hip shewould've cut an intimidating figure, and Ruby failed to resist the urge to squirm when the woman looked at her.

“Permission to come aboard?” she asked.

“Permission granted,” Weiss said, curtseying formally. “You honor us with your presence.”

“It has been some time since I've boarded a commercial ship,” Winter said, looking around with a bored expression on her face.

“I should offer you a tour, then,” Weiss said eagerly. It was kinda cute how the usually serious and poised woman was so keen to impress her sister. “ _Myrtenaster_ is an older ship, but she's quite capable.”

“You seemed to be having problems when I arrived,” Winter pointed out.

“We… hadn't been prepared to be attacked by a frigate,” Weiss grumbled. “But if they hadn't landed a lucky hit to the engines we would've escaped easily!”

“Lasers are designed for precision damage,” Winter scolded. “Complaining of a 'lucky hit' to a critical system when targeted by them is foolish.”

“I- of course, you are right,” Weiss said, looking down, her expression chastened.

It meant that she missed Winter's face softening at the expression, if only for a moment. “Still, your ship recovered well. The _Main Gauche's_ sensor's indicate significant damage to your engines, but you still managed an impressive amount of acceleration.”

Weiss gave Ruby a small smile. “Allow me to introduce my engineer. She may be a bit… unseasoned, but she's truly talented!”

Winter studied her even more closely. “Greetings. I am Commander Winter Schnee of the Atlesian Navy. It's a pleasure to meet you…”

“Ruby!” she said. “Ruby Rose! And, er, the honor is all, uh- that is…”

“I met her on Patch,” Weiss interrupted, shooting Ruby a quick glare at her fumbling introduction. It made her want to wilt, but she settled for turning as red as her namesake.

“Patch?” Winter said. “That is a small colony quite a distance from Atlas. Why did you meet your engineer there?”

“Well… I had another,” Weiss mumbled, only to yelp when Winter lightly smacked her on top of her head.

“Speak up!”

“Sorry, Winter,” Weiss said. “I had a different crew originally, one associated with the SDC, but they, um…”

“They were total jerks!” Ruby interrupted. “They tried to take Weiss' money, and they hit on me in a really creepy way, and they were just total, uh, jerks. So she got rid of them.”

“I see,” Winter said. “Hopefully your replacement crew are up to proper standards. You need to be careful who you hire, little sister. Trapped on a ship with them far away from civilization… it can be very dangerous if you take on criminals, terrorists, or other ne'er-do-wells. Selecting a proper crew is one of the most important jobs of a captain.”

“Yes, sister,” Weiss said, looking down at the ground for a moment, before straightening up and looking at her firmly. “I failed the first time, but… I'm very proud of my current crew. They may not be the most experienced, but they are all people I'm honored to fly with.”

“Good,” Winter said with a nod. “I'm looking forward to meeting them all.”

“Then how about I begin the tour,” Weiss said. “Um… this is the primary corridor. Shall I start with the mess hall?”

“However you wish to proceed,” Winter said.

Weiss gave her sister a thorough tour of the ship, and with nothing else to do (and wanting to be supportive) Ruby tagged along, throwing in a few words here or there when her girlfriend seemed to be floundering. Winter rarely spoke, and when she did it was to ask probing questions relevant to the part of the tour they were on, such as who did the cooking and what the food was like, or how the engine room was normally kept when it didn't have battle damage hastily repaired.

Despite her stern and cold attitude, Ruby was relieved by a few things she did notice. While she demanded answers like a general inspecting her troops, the main thrust of her questioning always related to her sister's wellbeing. She was harsh and uncompromising, but Ruby could see how much she cared. While she greatly preferred her own sister's rough and tumble attitude, she could see that Winter loved Weiss just as much as Yang loved her.

“Considering the damage, you've done an exemplary job of repairing the engines,” Winter said, inspecting some of the welded parts.

“Thanks!” Ruby said, blushing. “Weiss helped, too.”

“I didn't realize that you had an interest in mechanics,” Winter said, raising an eyebrow.

Weiss looked at her feet. “I simply did what I needed to do. Ruby needed an extra pair of hands if we wanted to reach the wormhole in time, and this ship is my responsibility.”

“That is a commendable attitude,” Winter said with a nod. “While I am not an expert, I spent some time with every duty station when I was a young officer. The experience has proven invaluable. It also allows me to recognize things that are unusual… such as that piece welded onto your mainframe.”

“Oh, er...” Ruby wasn't sure if they should reveal that they had taken Penny and added her to their computer. Without her they were pretty stuck, but she was from an Atlesian ship. Would they want her back? Or to arrest them for taking her at all? Would the Men in Black show up to destroy all the evidence that they had seen a Grimm? Were there Men in Black?!

Penny decided for them, however, as with a green swirl her cartoon face appeared on a nearby screen. “Salutations, Commander Schnee!”

Winter narrowed her eyes. “Penny Polendina?”

“That is correct!” Penny said. “I did not know that you would be the one to come investigate the _Marionette_.”

“Why is your computer core part of the _Myrtenaster?_ ” Winter asked.

“I was severely damaged by the Grimm,” Penny said. “In addition to the damage to my physical body, I had been taking control of the _Marionette_ when I shut down, and the routines I set into motion continued when the _Myrtenaster_ docked. The only way for their ship to be able to move again was if I took control of its central computer.”

“The existence of the Grimm, and your capabilities, are supposed to be strictly classified.”

Penny blushed and fidgeted. “I'm sorry! They'd already seen the Grimm! And they were in danger because they tried to help the crew! It wouldn't have been right for them to die because they were doing the right thing.”

Winter's expression softened. “I appreciate your rescue of my sister, but this puts us in a difficult position. When I return your core we will have to explain the circumstances under which you came to be in this state.”

“Or… we don't have to,” Penny said.

“What do you mean?”

Penny shrugged, shoulders appearing and disappearing to show the gesture. “I… I miss having a body, but in some ways this entire ship is now my body. And Ruby is my friend! I could just stay here, with them… if they don't mind.”

“Weiss?” Winter asked.

Weiss was silent for a long moment. “Penny has been an exemplary addition to the crew. If she wishes to stay then we would be glad to have her.”

Winter sighed. “I will still need to inform Admiral Ironwood, but he always had a soft spot for you… for both of you. If you truly wish to stay I can keep your presence here out of the official record. It will make it easier for Weiss as well, since I can keep her knowledge of the Grimm out of my reports.”

“Yay!” Ruby shouted, hugging Weiss. “Thanks for letting Penny stay!”

Weiss blushed fiercely, leaning into the touch for a moment, before her eyes darted to her sister. “G-get off of me, you dolt!”

Ruby blushed, just remembering who they were with as well. Did Weiss not want her sister to know they were together? Or was she just embarrassed at the contact in front of her? It was a little embarrassing doing stuff with Weiss in front of Yang, and they had a different kind of relationship than Weiss and Winter had. Still…

“You two are very… close,” Winter said delicately.

Weiss stiffened further, and somehow became even paler than normal, which was quite a feat and somewhat disturbing to see. She then raised her chin defiantly and grabbed one of Ruby's hands, despite how awkward that was to do mid-hug. “Yes, we… we are involved. Romantically. We are involved romantically.”

Winter studied them both. “I see.”

“I know you don't approve of fraternization with your crew, but-”

“I _am_ somewhat concerned about that, yes,” Winter interrupted. “If things don't work out it could become very awkward. While you don't have to worry about military discipline, you would still be trapped in a very small space together until you either moved on or she left. Still, I'm only concerned about your happiness. After what happened with Emerald-”

“Don't!” Weiss said. “Ruby is _nothing_ like that. I don't think she's even capable of lying.”

“I can lie!” Ruby objected, pulling back with a pout.

Weiss gave her flat look. “That's a lie… and a poor one. Besides, that isn't a bad thing. You work with machines and computers, not politicians. You don't need to lie, so it's not a skill you should develop, anyway.”

When they looked at Winter again Ruby was surprised at the very slight smile on her face. It was mostly in the softening of her eyes, as her lips had barely shifted at all, but it was there. “I don't know you very well, but despite everything that has just happened Weiss seems happier than I've seen her in a very long time. If you're a part of that, then you have my blessing to court her.”

“Thank you!” Ruby said, bouncing in place happily, which made a long suffering Weiss grumble as she was vibrated. “I won't let you down!”

“For your sake I hope that is the case,” Winter said lightly. “I'd hate to have to hunt you down and use a mass driver to crater your location from orbit if you broke her heart.”

“Winter!” Weiss objected, while Ruby gulped.

Winter just shrugged. “Explaining away an 'accidental' discharge that killed a civilian would take quite a bit of paperwork, so I hope I never have a need to do so.”

Weiss groaned, covering her eyes, while Ruby desperately studied Winter. Yang liked to threaten people too, and she had muscles, a mechanical arm, and a murderous glare to back up her words. Winter looked intense but otherwise gave nothing away, her eyes boring into Ruby's soul like she was judging her, and so far she was being found wanting. Maybe she was just making idle threats, but in that moment Ruby was convinced to never leave cover if she ever upset Weiss in any way.

“You don't have to worry about Weiss,” Ruby said firmly despite the fear making her knees want to collapse beneath her. “I care about her a lot, and I don't want to do anything but make her happy. She's really special to me, and I'll do everything I can to keep her safe from other stuff, too.”

Weiss turned bright red and kept her eyes covered, but Winter finally smiled. “Good. Just remember that and we'll be fine.”

“I will,” Ruby said. “I've never promised anything that meant more to me.”

“I think that's enough in the engine room!” Weiss said loudly. “Let's go to the bridge and meet the rest of the crew!”

Ruby giggled while Weiss scurried ahead, wanting to put some distance between her sister and her girlfriend. It was cute how easily embarrassed the woman was, not that she'd try to embarrass her… too often anyway. At least not in public.

“You seem to be doing a good job, already,” Winter said quietly as they followed, walking side by side while Weiss pressed on ahead. “She's far more relaxed than she has been since she was very young. And much happier than I think I've ever seen her.”

She didn't say anything else, and Ruby still found Winter to be a bit too intimidating to start a conversation with. If she did she'd probably descend into some meaningless babble about electronics or puppies or _electronic puppies_ and how cool would that be-

“Here is the bridge,” Weiss said, hitting the open button. “Winter, allow me to introduce you to my pilot and astrogator, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna.”

“Hey, big Schnee, thanks for the save back there,” Yang said casually.

“Yang!” Weiss shouted, but Ruby's sister just chuckled.

“It is a pleasure to meet you both,” Winter said. “I assume you are taking good care of my little sister? She has long been sheltered, and she can be somewhat difficult-”

“Hey!” Weiss shouted.

“-but she's stronger than she believes, and a better person than the Schnee name deserves,” Winter continued like her sister hadn't said a word.

“She's a good captain,” Blake said, smiling slightly. “I never imagined working with a Schnee, but I'm happy being on Weiss's ship.”

“Yeah, Weiss-y's not so bad,” Yang said. “I wouldn't let her date my little sis if she wasn't.”

“Little sister?” Winter said, raising an eyebrow curiously, before looking back and forth between the two.

“Yeah, Ruby took her mom's last name, but I took dad's,” Yang said.

“Would that happen to be Taiyang Xiao Long?” Winter asked.

“You know my dad?!” Ruby shouted.

“We've met a few times,” Winter said vaguely. “Anyway, I should be on my way soon. I have to report back to headquarters about the outcome of this rescue mission. I assume you won't speak about what you found on the _Marionette?”_

“Who'd believe us?” Yang said.

“People you don't want to know that you know,” Winter said sharply. “Weiss? If you'd escort me to my ship?”

“Of course,” Weiss said, leading the way.

Ruby sighed and slumped down in her seat as the door closed. “That was intense.”

“She didn't seem so bad,” Yang said. “Bit stiff.”

“You didn't have to tell her you were dating her little sister,” Ruby pouted.

Yang laughed. “Nope! You can have the Weissicle all to yourself.”

It was almost ten minutes later when they heard the boarding tube disconnect, and then Weiss returned to bridge, a small smile on her face. “Wasn't she wonderful?”

Blake shrugged. “We barely saw her.”

“She saved our bacon at least,” Yang said. “Still, she's not nearly as cool a big sis as yours truly.”

Weiss scoffed. “Please. You could ever compete with Winter. Anyway, it's time to get to Vale. ETA?”

“Five days, assuming the repairs hold,” Penny said, her cartoon face appearing on one of Ruby's screens.

“They will,” Ruby said. “I did my best work!”

“Yeah, don't doubt the Roobster,” Yang said. “Still, wish we'd asked Winter for some food. We're gonna be eating nothing but the yucky rations by then. Whoever thought shrimp was a good idea in ration form should be thrown out an airlock.”

“I like shrimp,” Blake said.

Yang just shook her head slowly, her eyes lost in the a thousand yard stare out the large window. “Not this shrimp. Never this shrimp.”

“I'm sorry,” Weiss said. “I… I didn't want her to know that we were having problems with supplies. I should-”

“Naw, don't worry about it,” Yang interrupted. “I get what you mean, and we'll be fine. We've got, like, almost a week of rations left. So as long as the repairs hold-”

“They will!” Ruby objected.

“-we'll make it with at least a couple of veggie omelettes remaining.”

Ruby pouted for a moment longer, while Weiss stood and headed away from the bridge. Ruby watched her go, before glancing at her sister and Blake, who were chatting idly while Blake and Penny double checked their route for ways to improve it. She then scurried after her girlfriend, catching up to her just as she reached the door to her room.

“Ruby, what do- MMPH,” Weiss started to say, only to be cut off as Ruby pinned her to the wall with a powerful kiss. She stiffened up in surprise, before finally melting into it, wrapping her arms around Ruby's back and returning the kiss with equal fervor.

As the impromptu make out session heated up, Ruby let a hand drift down to Weiss' bottom, giving it a firm squeeze that made Weiss moan, before she pulled back, pupils blown and breathing heavily. “W-wait.”

“What's wrong?” Ruby asked.

“If we keep this up I'm not going to want to stop,” Weiss breathed.

Ruby grinned. “Good. I don't wanna stop.”

“But- you didn't want to…”

“That was when we were all scared of dying,” Ruby said, shaking her head. “I didn't want to jump to it and then realize it was just stress and then feel bad about it.”

“But now?” Weiss asked.

Ruby looked leaned in and whispered in her ear, making her shudder. “Now… I'm gonna make up for all the lost time, okay?”

“O-okay.”


	30. Vale

Ruby slowly woke up. There was some kind of beeping, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was she was warm, comfy, and didn't want to move _ever_. Only as the beeping persisted, seemingly getting louder as she was dragged from her rest did she finally resign herself to opening her eyes.

She was in Weiss's bed, which over the last week had become pretty normal. She still had her own room (so far) but neither of them owned much, and if things kept going the way they were she'd probably just move in one day and never leave. She didn't think Weiss would mind, and Yang had already been tormenting them with jokes about it.

Unfortunately, today wasn't a cuddle day. Weiss had apparently been needed somewhere, and had left with a kiss after her alarm went off. Ruby, on the other hand, had just rolled over and gone back to sleep. She had always been a morning person, eager to hop up and start the day, but nights making love to Weiss and mornings cuddling with her had finally taught Ruby the wonders of being in bed. In fact, after the previous night she had no idea how Weiss had the energy to get up so early today.

The beeping stopped, and Ruby squinted at the door for a moment. The beeping had been someone outside trying to get her attention… but they were gone, so back to comfy rest for her. With a smile she bonelessly flopped out into the sheets again, sighing contentedly. Life was good.

She had just started to slip into a happy doze when the door opened. Weiss huffed and stomped over, poking her in the side. Ruby finally opened her eyes again, humming blearily.

“Don't give me that,” Weiss said, crossing her arms. “You're the one who said you were a morning person! I'm the one who likes to sleep in late.”

“Then why'd you get up,” Ruby whined. “Come back to bed… I'll make it worth your while.”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “Get up. We're here.”

“Here?”

“Vale,” Weiss said flatly. “You did want to see Vale, right?”

Ruby lay silently for a moment, letting that sink in. Then she jumped out of bed. “We're at Vale!?!”

“Yes,” Weiss sighed, blushing as her eyes were glued to Ruby's chest. “That's why Yang went looking for you earlier. And why I'm here now. Now do you want to come see it or not?”

She almost ran out the door, but even she wasn't so oblivious that she missed being naked. After pressing a quick kiss to Weiss' lips she ran over, grabbed some of her clothing from one of Weiss' drawers, and then ran into her bathroom. A quick glance in the mirror added 'shower' to her morning plans, and she jumped in even before the water was hot. She didn't want to miss Vale!

Ten minutes later, refreshed, clean, dressed, and no longer showing the signs of an exciting night Ruby made her way to the bridge. When she opened the door the first thing she saw was a large, green, white and blue planet hovering in front of them. Vale was one of the most perfect planets for colonization that had been found, with large temperate zones, an endless bounty of natural resources, and great gravity and atmosphere. It even had a biosphere full of human edible foods, cute animals, and nothing trying to kill people. There was a reason why it had grown into such a massive colony despite being so far out on the frontier.

“Finally awake, sis?” Yang asked with a smirk.

“Yup,” Ruby said, blushing a little as she made her way to her seat. Even though Yang and Blake were watching she couldn't help herself, pausing to kiss Weiss's cheek along the way. She was just so cute when she blushed!

Yang wiped away a fake tear. “She's become a chip off the old block. From playing with motors to maiden hearts in just a few short months.”

“Hey!” Ruby objected. “I'd never play with Weiss's heart!”

Weiss covered her blushing face, obviously still not used to being around people like the sisters. “Shouldn't we be landing?”

“You were the one who wanted to wait for Rubadoob,” Yang said, turning back to her console and hitting a few buttons. “You even said we had to fly upside down so she could see Vale when she got up.”

“There's no up and down in space,” Weiss said.

“No, but there is when you're landing,” Blake replied as Yang flipped the ship over so that they could start their descent.

In a matter of moments they were slicing into the atmosphere, and Yang deployed the manual stick, grinning like an idiot as she was able to control the ship that way rather than being forced to rely upon courses entered into the computer. There wasn't much for her to do, however, at least until they shed enough speed and came close to their destination.

“Vale Space Traffic Control to _Myrtenaster_ ,” a voice said from Weiss' scroll. “Vale Space Traffic Control to _Myrtenaster_ , do you copy?”

“This is _Myrtenaster_ to Vale Space Traffic Control,” Weiss said. “We copy.”

“Sending you a flight plan, please adhere to it,” the voice said. “You've requested dry dock clearance, and there's a hanger available for you.”

“Thank you, Control,” Weiss said, pressing a few buttons. “We have received your flight plan.”

“Then welcome to Vale. Please enjoy your stay, and be sure to comply with customs inspectors. Do not leave your ship until they arrive.”

“Thank you,” Weiss said, setting down her scroll.

Not long after that they descended low enough that Ruby could see the bright blue ocean beneath them, and the green land ahead. The two met at a large, natural harbor, and all around it was the city of Vale, capital of the colony. The heart of the city was an enormous district of steel and glass skyscrapers, some of them stretching thousands of feet into the air. Ruby couldn't imagine how many people lived and worked in even one of those buildings, and there were more than she could easily count all clustered together like a giant forest.

All around the downtown was a vast, sprawling city of smaller buildings and private homes. As they closed Ruby could make out networks of trains, monorails, roads and flight lanes, with hover cars and cycles filling the sky like a swarm of bees around the vast hive that was Vale. Even the ocean was full of humanity, as countless ships plied the waves, from personal fishing boats and private yachts, to giant freighters carrying goods from far flung outposts scattered around the planet.

Their course took them away from the heart of the city, to a section of coast where cliffs sharply rose above a white sand beach. The ground beyond the cliffs was broad and flat, and that was where the primary starport was arrayed. Like Patch, it largely consisted of great concrete landing pads for ships to touch down, but while that had been able to handle a few ships at once, this saw hundreds of arrivals every day. In addition to the simple landing pads there were huge hanger buildings, where entire crews could repair, refit, or even build ships from nothing but raw materials.

Ruby had to wipe away a little drool just thinking about the kind of facilities available on Vale… facilities she would be making use of herself shortly. They had made it without losing any of Weiss's Dust, which meant that they could finally fix all the damage time and combat had wrought on the _Myrtenaster_. She couldn't wait!

Yang slowed the ship as they approached, following the flight plan, although she stubbornly used the manual stick instead of simply letting the computer do it. After a few more minutes they reached a large hanger, the top of which slid open to reveal a landing pad surrounded by all of the maintenance and repair equipment Ruby had been dreaming of. Yang feathered the throttle, moving the ship into position, and slowly descended. With a gentle thump they touched down, and then Ruby got to work turning off the engines and preparing the rest of the ship to shut down.

“We made it!” Yang shouted as she finished her own post-flight checklist. She hopped to her feet, arms in the air like a champion athlete. “We're on Vale! Come on, Blake-y, where's your happy face?”

“My happy face?” Blake asked, bewildered.

“Yeah, shouldn't you look like the cat who caught the canary?” Yang asked, leaning close enough to make Blake press back in her chair to get away from her. “Nope… no feathers. Not even a big ol' grin. Come on, kitty cat, we made it!”

Blake rolled her eyes. “It's just a planet.”

“It's not just a planet!” Yang shouted. “It's Vale! There's nowhere better than Vale! The biggest, coolest, hippest planet around!”

“How can it be the biggest?” Blake asked. “It's not a gas giant, nor does it have a high population compared to Atlas or Mistral.”

“Boo,” Yang said. “Weiss, Blake's being a party pooper.”

“I'm with her on this one,” Weiss said. “Compared to Atlas, Vale may as well be a rural backwater.”

“Ugh, you're no fun at all,” Yang grumbled, turning her back on everyone and crossing her arms.

Ruby decided that was a good moment to jump in, doing so literally by hopping onto her sister's back, wrapping her arms and legs around her to cling on. “We're in Vale, Yang! We made it!”

“Yeah!” Yang crowed, reinvigorated by Ruby joining her. She began to trot around the bridge while Ruby waved her arms and cheered.

Weiss, meanwhile, covered her eyes and moaned. “What have I gotten myself into?”

“You're dating her,” Blake said dryly. “Just remember that you chose _that_.”

“I'm so glad Winter isn't here to see this,” Weiss whimpered.

Ruby grinned and hopped off Yang's back directly onto Weiss' lap, making her yelp in shock. When she tried to glare at her Ruby just grinned and kissed her. “Am I really that bad?” she asked, turning her puppy dog eyes up to max.

Weiss crumbled instantly. “Ugh, you are such a dolt.”

“But I'm your dolt, right?”

“Ugh, fine,” Weiss muttered, earning herself another kiss.

Before things could get carried away Yang decided to make her presence known, reminding Ruby why she didn't like to do things with her sister present. “Yeah, you go Ruby! Get that rich girl booty!”

“Nope,” Weiss said, shoving Ruby off of her lap, making her grunt when she hit the metal floor with a thump. “No more of that.”

“Yaaannnngggg…” Ruby moaned, drawing the name out as long as she could. “Why?”

Penny giggled, her face appearing on the monitors, reminding Ruby once again to figure out which rooms had cameras that she could access. The AI had become a good friend to Ruby over the past week, but she still didn't want her watching while she and Weiss had private time.

“The customs people have arrived,” Penny said once her laughter was under control.

Weiss stood and nodded. “I need to deal with this before we do anything else. Just… try not to cause trouble.”

“How could we cause trouble?” Ruby asked.

Weiss looked from one of them to the next for a long moment before shaking her head. “Just stay on the bridge; this won't take long.”

With that she left, and Ruby laid back down pouting. “I wanted to watch the customs people.”

“You really don't,” Blake said. “It's very boring. They're going to search the ship to make sure we aren't smuggling anything, and then open a random assortment of crates to make sure that it only contains Dust. Then they'll go through paperwork for a while, and finally they'll assess taxes and duties.”

“How do you know so much about it?” Yang asked.

Blake shrugged. “I had to plan smuggling missions sometimes when I was in the White Fang.”

Blake and Yang chatted lightly after that, with Ruby and Penny chiming in from time to time. It was nice and relaxing, but Ruby wanted to see Vale, not wait on the bridge; she couldn't even see the sky anymore since the hanger had closed. It felt like they'd been stuck on the ship for _forever_ , and they were still on it. Finally, after a little over an hour, the bridge door opened to reveal an annoyed looking Weiss.

“Everything okay?” Ruby asked, hopping to her feet.

“Yes, it's just going to cost more than I wanted to stay here,” Weiss said. “Still, there will be plenty of profit from this trip.”

“Speaking of which,” Yang coughed.

Weiss rolled her eyes. “You'll be paid, don't worry. I need to sell the Dust to afford it, though. I lacked sufficient funds to pay for our arrival, so they put a lien on my ship until I do, which needs to be cleared up _immediately._ ”

“So you're selling the Dust now?” Ruby asked.

Weiss nodded sharply. “It's an expensive commodity, but a badly needed one; it shouldn't take long for me to flip it. I may even be able to get above normal market rate for it given the quality and quantity. Most ships only bring a small amount, and the SDC rarely lets this high of a grade of Dust leave Atlas.”

“Can I go with you?” Ruby asked curiously.

Weiss crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “You want to watch me trading?”

“Yeah,” Ruby said. “I've never seen anyone do it before, and you like it, right?”

“I… well, yes,” Weiss said. “I've never been a captain before this trip, but I received extensive business training. If there is any part of this job that I'm actually confident about, it's the trading itself.”

Ruby grabbed her hand and grinned. “You did fine! Stop worrying so much.”

“It's my job to worry,” Weiss said dryly. “That's what being captain means.”

“Yeah, but you're going to go… er… I was gonna say gray, but your hair's white, so I'm not sure how that works,” Ruby said.

Weiss just rolled her eyes. “Dolt. Are you coming or not?”

“Of course!” Ruby shouted, pulling her along by the hand.

It had been a while since she'd left the ship, and Ruby was practically vibrating with excitement while waiting for the airlock to cycle. When it finally did, she took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air of an alien world, and then started coughing. Something smelled _weird_.

Weiss on the other hand started laughing at her. “What?” Ruby pouted.

“Every world smells strange,” Weiss said. “You'll get used to it.”

“I thought you'd never really travelled before?” Ruby said.

Weiss shrugged, pulling her hand gently to lead her onto the ramp down. When they stepped onto it they left _Myrtenaster's_ artificial gravity, almost making Ruby trip. The difference was very slight, far less than the difference between Patch (which was on the high side for unassisted human habitation) and the ship, but it was still noticeable, especially by someone as clumsy as she was.

“I spent quite a while traveling from Atlas to Patch,” Weiss said. “I avoided the primary trade routes, not wanting to be caught by my father's people. We did stop at a world for supplies before Patch, and it smelled _bad_. Vale at least doesn't stink, even if it smells odd.”

The hanger was super cool, and Ruby couldn't wait to explore every inch of it later. Just passing through she could see things she'd only ever dreamed of using, but she knew Weiss would get huffy if she didn't get to sell her Dust right away, so she resisted the urge to run off and examine a few things. Barely.

Outside the hanger Ruby got her first glimpse of another sky. It was a pale blue, and the sun was a large, bright yellow disc, so bright that it hurt her eyes after so long with nothing but artificial lighting and the stars. She took a deep lungful of the alien air, ready for it to smell strange this time, and it certainly wasn't unpleasant.

“Welcome to Vale,” Weiss said warmly.

Ruby grinned over at her, before stealing a quick kiss. “This is so cool. We're gonna see the whole galaxy, aren't we?”

“Maybe not the whole galaxy, but we're going to visit many worlds,” Weiss said. “I can't wait to see how beautiful you look under so many foreign stars.”

Ruby blushed bright red, not sure how to respond to something like that. Was Weiss trying to kill her? “Not as beautiful as you,” she settled on when her tongue started working again, before stealing another quick but passionate kiss.

Once they'd calmed down Weiss summoned a self driving hover car with her scroll, and after inputting the destination it flew off, gaining enough altitude to give Ruby a good view of the city. She was soon pressed against the window, her nose squished by the glass and sparkling eyes wide as she tried to take in everything. It was unimaginable how many _people_ there were in one place. Every street had more strangers than the entire population of Patch, and there were more streets than buildings back home. Many, many more.

The flying car finally landed on a platform halfway up one of the enormous glass and steel skyscrapers, and Weiss led the way inside. Other than potted plants and a few abstract paintings everything inside was white tile, brushed aluminum, and clear glass. It was an austere style, and Ruby wasn't very fond of it, but it was obvious from her expression that Weiss approved.

“Where are we going?” Ruby asked curiously.

“Before I settled on Vale as a destination I did some research, and as soon as I arrived I contacted the best candidate to move the cargo,” Weiss explained. “Given the value I had to go to someone capable of paying my price, which means one of the most successful firms on Vale.”

“Oh,” Ruby said, looking around again. She'd never been around rich people stuff, but she'd expected more gold and less harshness, but she didn't know anything about business people.

Having booked an appointment they didn't have to wait long, and soon they were brought to a spacious room with a glass topped table and faux-leather armchairs sitting around it. One wall featured floor to ceiling windows, offering an incredible view of downtown, which Ruby walked over to while Weiss sat stiffly.

The man she'd come to meet was getting on in years, with a balding head and a large belly. He had a shrewd look to his beady eyes, and an expensive suit designed to hide his bulk as much as possible. “Ms. Schnee, you contacted us about a shipment that you would like to sell?”

“Yes,” Weiss with a slight nod, steepling her fingers as she stared him down. “I have a small amount of cargo to unload and was prepared to offer a good price if you were interested.” She paused to check the time. “I have other appointments today, so perhaps we can skip the pleasantries and get right to business?”

“I wouldn't want to waste either of our time,” he said blandly. “If you have something of interest to my firm then we may purchase it if the price is right. Things have been busy lately, however, so it would need to be something worth the extra effort.”

Weiss smiled slightly, although it didn't reach her eyes. “If your firm is so busy I hope that you have sufficient capital to make a reasonable offer.”

Ruby looked back and forth between them and gulped. She'd been expecting some haggling, like when Yang needed parts for her bike but she couldn't get the price she wanted. This? This was a battle, and she was trapped between belligerents.


	31. To The Future

The restaurant was fancier than anything Ruby and Yang had ever seen, if their wide eyes and gaped mouths were anything to go by. Even normally unflappable Blake was obviously impressed, although that may in part have had to do with what the restaurant _was_. Given her penchant for taking even the most questionable of the seafood rations over other picks it was no surprise that the finest sushi restaurant on Vale would interest her.

Weiss's family would've considered it to be a fine place to have a meal, but she'd routinely dined in places with more history, more expensive décor, and wider reputations than anything the frontier had to offer. Still, after so long eating nothing but rations after the real food supplies ran out she'd been overjoyed to arrange a reservation so quickly.

“So, I'm guessing you got your money?” Yang asked as she sat down.

“So much money,” Ruby mumbled, still a little shell shocked from the recent transaction.

“I was satisfied with the price we reached,” Weiss said casually.

“ _So_ much money,” Ruby repeated.

Weiss was more than satisfied, actually. She'd been trained since childhood in business, and had done a variety of small jobs for her father over the years to prove herself worthy of someday inheriting the SDC. For all of that, it was rare to be able to upsell a commodity like Dust, but she'd managed to get a higher price given the high quality and large quantities she was selling all at once. Normally Vale had to put up with low grade Dust sold in meager volumes, as the SDC didn't want competition to formfor their own high tech Dust products, and cutting edge devices needed the best possible Dust.

“So, paychecks?” Yang said, pulling out her scroll.

Weiss rolled her eyes but complied. She'd electronically transferred money to pay her entry fees and taxes immediately after receiving her payment for the cargo, and had also reserved the hanger for a month with the option of renting it for longer. She'd considered hiring contractors to do the repairs and upgrades, but decided to wait and work things out with Ruby first. She would be taking point on the work, and Weiss would hire whatever help and parts she wanted instead of just throwing money at the problem.

With the others paid she was finished with her financial obligations for the month, and with a little more light talk they placed their orders. Blake had enthusiastically ordered more than she could possibly eat, while Yang and Ruby had been a bit more leery.

“So it's… raw fish?” Yang said, flipping through the menu, trying to figure out how it all worked.

Blake wiped away the drool that had started to form during her epic order and rolled her eyes. “Do you want me to pick something out you'd like?”

Yang hesitated. “Is there anything I'd like?”

Blake shook her head, and started pointing things out. “There's plenty of dishes for beginners. Look, you might like-”

Ruby leaned over and whispered to Weiss while they were doing that. “I'm kinda with Yang on this one.”

Weiss smirked. “I think after what we've been eating _anything_ would taste good right now.”

“Well… okay, maybe,” Ruby agreed, shuddering as she remembered the rubbery 'omelette' she'd had for breakfast. “Still…”

“There are… challenging pieces of sushi, but most isn't that extreme,” Weiss said. “Let's pick something out that you'll appreciate.”

Once their order was settled they leaned back in their seats, looking at each other. “So…” Yang started. “We got here. And sold your stuff. So what now?”

“First of all, are we going to stay together?” Weiss asked. “You three were practically press-ganged into being my crew, but you agreed to stay until we reached Vale. Do you want to continue?”

“Will there be more sushi?” Blake asked with a perfectly straight face, although a slight glint in her eye told Weiss that she was just joking… mostly.

“I'm not sure what worlds we'll end up visiting,” Weiss said, deciding on an honest answer. “Even with our cargo gone I want to stay well clear of the SDC, and that means sticking to the frontier. There are many worlds out here that need goods, and many produce things that we could sell elsewhere. Frontier colonies aren't exactly renowned for their prestigious restaurant scenes, however.”

“Well, I don't know about the trading stuff, but checking out remote worlds sounds like fun,” Yang said. “Probably lots of stuff out there nobody's seen, and lots of rough and tumble places to get into trouble. Count me in.”

“Ruby?” Weiss asked, looking over at her.

Ruby looked surprised. “You even have to ask?”

Weiss shrugged. “Nothing's set in stone yet. If there were other ideas we could discuss them.”

“No, that's fine,” Ruby said, leaning over giving Weiss's cheek a quick kiss. “I just want to go out there and see… everything. The frontier sounds fine to me!”

Weiss smiled at her girlfriend warmly, and then turned her attention to Blake. “Blake?”

The cat Faunus looked between all three of them, obviously taking things seriously, before finally nodding. “I… after everything I didn't expect to find somewhere that I could be accepted, and especially I didn't expect it to be with humans, much less a _Schnee_. But… I can't think of anywhere in the universe I'd rather be than with the three of you.”

“Aww, Blakey!” Yang cooed, pulling her into a hug. “We want you with us too!”

“Get off of me!” Blake forced out, struggling weakly. Yang had forced her head into her bosom, and Weiss chuckled slightly at how red the Faunus' face had become.

Once Yang let her go Weiss smiled and raised her glass. “To us. May we be successful and not get into danger for a long, long time.”

“Aww, that takes all the fun out of it,” Yang said, although she raised her glass as well.

“To the future,” Blake agreed.

“To the future!” Ruby shouted.

It would be dangerous, exhausting, difficult work carving out a living as a trader on the frontier, but with her friends… her new family with her, there was nowhere else in the universe Weiss would rather be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My plan for this story was to write it as a novel, and to give myself plenty of room for sequels if this story went over well and I enjoyed writing it. With… everything that happened in my life these past months I haven't been able to write much, so the sequel is still just a rough outline only partially committed to paper. I'm hoping RWBY vol. 7 gets my in the right state of mind to start writing again, since I have a lot of ideas for where to go next with this AU.
> 
> Thank you everyone who enjoyed this story, and I hope to have more for you to read in the not too distant future.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my new story, another White Rose AU. This is a science fiction universe, and while the main focus will be on Ruby and Weiss, we'll also have quite a bit of screen time with Blake and Yang. Let me know what you think about my story, and I hope that you all enjoy reading it!
> 
> I'm dedicating this story to my father, who first introduced me to science fiction at a very young age. From Heinlein to Asimov, Traveler to Starfire, Star Trek to Babylon 5, my childhood was full of classic sci fi. He passed away while I was posting this story, and he will be dearly missed.


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